Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu denied that security forces were told to confront high-school protesters. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez suspended police use of stun grenades at those demonstrations after a 15-year-old lost a hand.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Wednesday that French security forces were not ordered to confront protesting high-school students, Le Monde reported. The denial came after unions, rights groups and students accused police of disproportionate force.
Hundreds of students, police and teaching staff have been injured since the protests over conditions in high schools began, and more than 6,500 people, mostly minors, have been arrested, Le Monde said. Reuters, citing the interior ministry a day earlier, put arrests since the protests began at 6,100, and the justice ministry at more than 1,800 people being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors.
A 15-year-old lost a hand on Monday after police fired a stun grenade. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told RTL on Wednesday that he was suspending use of stun grenades at the high-school protests until the incident is clarified. Regional paper La Voix du Nord said the teenager lost a hand and part of a lower arm after picking up a grenade.
Lecornu also said France would release diesel stocks to bring down fuel prices and repeated a target of cutting the budget deficit to 5 percent of GDP next year. He had earlier told lawmakers that at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff had been injured, which he called the heaviest toll in decades for the school system, and his office said more than 700 officers were hurt.
The grenade suspension is limited to these protests and is pending clarification of Monday's incident. No broader change to public-order rules was announced.
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- Lecornu said police were not ordered to confront the students.
- Nunez said stun-grenade use at the high-school protests is suspended until Monday's incident is clarified.