Tear gas was used in Strasbourg, Lyon and Rennes as students, teachers and parents marched over staffing and building conditions, on the largest day so far of France's school protests.
Police fired tear gas on Tuesday at protesters blockading French high schools as students, teachers and parents joined the largest day yet of demonstrations over understaffed and rundown classrooms. Reuters reported largely peaceful rallies in Marseille and Nantes and clashes in Strasbourg, Lyon and Rennes, where fires were lit and projectiles thrown.
The movement began last month at a school in the Paris suburbs and has spread to hundreds of the country's roughly 3,700 lycees, the New York Times reported. Education Minister Edouard Geffray has called the demands legitimate while saying student violence had gone too far.
The interior ministry told Reuters that 6,100 people had been arrested since the protests began, most of them minors. The justice ministry said more than 1,800 people were being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors, without listing the charges.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office said at least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers had been injured. On Monday a 15-year-old in northern France lost a hand and part of a forearm after picking up a police dispersal grenade, regional paper La Voix du Nord reported. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the injury may have involved a stun grenade.
Rights groups and a judges' union have accused police of disproportionate force against minors. The government says outsiders have turned parts of the movement into urban violence. No new national negotiation date was announced on Tuesday.
People Sentiments Negative
- Rights groups accused police of disproportionate force against minors.
- The government said outsiders had turned parts of the protests into urban violence.
- Education Minister Edouard Geffray said the demands were legitimate but violence was not.