A 15-year-old boy lost his hand in a clash near Auguste Béhal high school in Lens on Monday, prompting France to suspend police use of stun grenades at student protests. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said there was a "strong possibility" a non-lethal grenade caused the injury, and ordered the suspension until officials clarify the facts. The boy underwent an amputation and remained in hospital.
The accounts conflict. According to the BBC, authorities said the boy picked up the grenade before it exploded. Students allege an officer fired it directly at him. The local prefect said police faced 200-250 students throwing stones and fireworks. When the grenade detonates, it sends out small rubber pellets.
Human Impact
Nuñez told RTL radio that the police watchdog IGPN had opened 18 investigations into whether officers acted proportionately. "There is a police action that raises questions for all of us within the Ministry of the Interior; it's what happened in Lens," he said, adding that the government was "here to protect high school students."
The wider toll is heavy. Since protests began in mid-September, 215 students, 85 staff and 715 police officers have suffered injuries, the prime minister said. More than 6,500 people have been stopped or arrested, according to the interior ministry. On Tuesday alone, police arrested 488 people, while 43 members of the security forces were hurt. Some cities used tear gas and water cannon.
Rights groups, students and some political opponents accused police of disproportionate force. Ryad Rani, head of the USL high school union, put it bluntly on French radio: "We are telling M. Nuñez, calm your police officers down and call for restraint." Some police unions reacted coolly to the suspension, invoking their right to withdraw from duty and citing "their inability to respond" if unrest occurred.
What the Students Are Asking For
Behind the street clashes lies a list of grievances that isn't new. Students cite dilapidated school buildings, teacher shortages, overloaded schedules, inadequate funding and inequality between regions. They link those conditions to France's falling results in the OECD's PISA assessments, which have dropped faster than the OECD average since 2015. French 15-year-olds scored 43 points lower in reading in 2025 than a decade earlier, the biggest fall in the OECD. Their mathematics scores also fell the most. Students also want changes to Parcoursup, the platform for applying to first-year higher education, which they regard as opaque and unequal.
More than 500 schools closed fully or partly on Wednesday. The BBC said Tuesday's demonstrations disrupted almost a quarter of France's lycées. The interior ministry counted more than 250,000 people at Tuesday's protests; student unions said 450,000. Organizers called a fourth round of protests for Thursday in Paris and other cities. The left-wing CGT, France's second-largest trade union, backed the call. "The CGT will continue to shoulder its responsibilities in supporting the young people who have mobilised and protecting them from violence and police repression," it said.
Government Response and Budget Limits
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu acknowledged the students' "legitimate" demands and described the unrest as the most violent student demonstrations in decades. In a televised address, he said the country couldn't be "indifferent" and that the "anger of young people does not come from nowhere." He said security forces had no orders to "confront" protesting students. Work is under way on cover for absent teachers, school repairs, timetables and Parcoursup, and Lecornu promised a plan by the end of October. The Agora app, launched to collect young people's grievances, has received 30,000 anonymous contributions.
The money is tight. The government faces pressure to control public debt amid weak growth and must find several tens of billions of euros in savings, even as the draft 2027 budget provides for increased education spending. Lecornu reiterated his aim to cut France's debt to 5% of GDP next year. President Emmanuel Macron convened an emergency meeting late Tuesday with Lecornu and other key ministers. The protests come six months before the presidential election, with far-right and far-left parties described as front-runners and Marine Le Pen riding high in polls.
Echoes Across Europe
The anger isn't confined to France. In Liège, Belgium, hundreds of students rallied over rising education costs, overcrowded classrooms and difficulty accessing study materials. Local media reported 107 arrests, and the BE-Alert system told shopkeepers: "Major unrest is underway. Close your businesses." The unrest followed June clashes in Brussels over reforms that raise tuition for most students in the French-speaking Community from €835 to €1,194.
"We support each other because we're facing pretty much the same issues," said 19-year-old student Alfred. Amelia Di Salve, also 19 and studying to become a teacher, said: "When we saw nothing was changing without protests, we decided we would start ... France did influence us a little." Liège mayor Willy Demeyer hoped "that dialogue can be established and that the young people can express their grievances in a peaceful way."
Portugal's main teachers' union FENPROF began an indefinite strike in mid-September over unpaid overtime beyond the 35-hour week. It said the causes of the French protests "reflect problems familiar to teachers and students in other countries: deteriorating school conditions, teacher shortages, excessive workloads, and widening inequalities in access to education." In Spain, Madrid teachers planned a strike for October 14, seeking fewer hours, smaller classes and higher salaries.
Why This Matters:
A teenager has lost his hand. The investigations into how it happened remain open. Beyond that, the same complaints about crumbling classrooms, missing teachers and unequal access are being voiced in France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain at once. That pattern suggests national budget squeezes are producing a shared European problem, one no single finance ministry can easily solve. France faces a hard choice: it must repair public finances while delivering the school investment students say is overdue. If the promised end-of-October plan lacks funding, or if policing remains the government's main answer, young people's trust in institutions could erode further ahead of an election in which anti-system parties already lead.