07 October,2026 07:23 PM IST | Paris | AFP
A police officer aims with his 40 millimetre rubber defensive bullet launcher during a demonstration in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on Tuesday. PIC/AFP
France has suspended the use of stun grenades by police at student-led demonstrations, the interior minister said Wednesday, as allegations of police brutality mounted after days of protests across the country.
More than 6,500 people, mostly minors, have been arrested since the movement demanding better conditions in high schools began, with hundreds of students, police and teaching staff injured.
On Tuesday evening, after tens of thousands took to the streets across France, President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and other key ministers to find a way out of the crisis.
Lecornu will speak later Wednesday on the school protests as well as the national finances, his office said, as the country also wrestles with heated debates over its 2027 budget.
"The voice of high school students is precious and must be heard," Lecornu reassured in a comment on X, adding it would contribute to "a concrete action plan".
Despite the response, several national education unions have called for new strikes and demonstrations Thursday.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told radio broadcaster RTL early Wednesday that he had suspended the police use of stun grenades at the student protests.
A 15-year-old lost a hand on Monday after police fired a stun grenade.
"I am suspending their use in the high school student protests until the facts of the incident have been clarified," said Nunez.
He stressed that this suspension was "only for the high school student protests" and for "just long enough to understand what happened".
Last week, a 14-year-old student in northwest Paris was hit in the face with a tear gas grenade at such close range that he lost several teeth.
A policeman was charged Tuesday over that incident.
Police have opened 18 internal investigations into allegations of misconduct since the protests began, Nunez said.
The unrest comes ahead of a tense 2027 election to choose Macron's successor, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen riding high in the polls despite a graft conviction.
"It took several children being maimed for life for Nunez to give up using grenades against high school students," said Manuel Bompard, national coordinator of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI).
The government has blamed the LFI for stoking tensions around the protests.
Meanwhile Le Pen accused Macron of being "always on the side of attacking the police".
'Need something more'
The protests started in late September with students blocking entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds over complaints of dilapidated facilities and teacher shortages.
While most schools reopened Wednesday, more than 500 remained at least partially closed with students blocking doors with mounds of trash bins.
Parents, teachers and union workers joined demonstrations in Paris and other cities for a national day of mobilisation Tuesday.
At least 488 people were arrested and 43 members of the security forces wounded in the protests Tuesday, which saw a quarter of a million people mass across France, the interior ministry said.
Several lawyers representing teens taken into police custody say they have faced physical violence and insults.
Ainoha Pascual, a lawyer representing three minors in Paris, said they had been "terrorised".
"A very large majority arrive in custody injured", having taken baton blows or being dragged on the ground, she added.
Prisca Ancion with the Collective for Judicial Action told AFP that every single high schooler arrested reported experiencing "an insult, a slap, having their head held down on the ground, chokeholds."
Most of Tuesday's demonstrations were peaceful, but there were sporadic clashes across the country with protesters throwing projectiles and security forces using tear gas, AFP correspondents said.
Lecornu announced a half-day of class time would be set aside in schools Wednesday to give students and staff the opportunity to voice their issues.
However, student union leader Ryad Rani told local press that the effort was "yet another attempt to muzzle the debate" and to gain time.
And the union representative for school principals, Nicolas Bonnet, told broadcaster franceinfo that "to get out of this crisis, we will need something more than simple consultation periods".
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