Police fired tear gas in Strasbourg, Lyon and Rennes as students, teachers and parents protested conditions in France's high schools. The interior ministry said 6,100 people had been arrested since the protests began.
Police fired tear gas at protesters blockading French high schools on Tuesday, the biggest day so far in demonstrations over understaffed and dilapidated classrooms, Reuters reported from Strasbourg, Lyon and Paris.
Marches in Marseille and Nantes were largely peaceful, with signs reading that the state had killed national education. In Toulouse, parents linked arms at the front of a march. In Strasbourg, Lyon and Rennes, Reuters said demonstrations turned violent, with fires in the streets and projectiles thrown at police.
The interior ministry said 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 specifying the charges in the Reuters account.
The government said outsiders had hijacked the movement. The office of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said at least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers had been injured. Regional paper La Voix du Nord reported that a 15-year-old lost a hand and part of a lower arm on Monday after picking up a police dispersal grenade in northern France.
Reuters said the protests concern conditions in about 3,700 high schools. No nationwide settlement was reported on Tuesday.
People Sentiments Negative
- Protesters carried signs saying the state had killed national education.
- The government said the movement had been hijacked by outsiders and had turned into urban violence.