France has suspended police use of stun grenades during student protests after a 15-year-old’s hand was torn off in Lens on Monday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, according to the BBC. Nuñez told RTL he ordered the pause until the facts of the incident are clarified, citing conflicting accounts from authorities and students.
Conflicting accounts in Lens blast
The boy was injured near the Auguste Béhal high school in Lens, close to Lille. Authorities said he picked up an anti-encirclement grenade that then exploded, while students alleged he was hit directly after an officer fired, the BBC reported. The local prefect said the confrontation involved 200–250 students throwing stones and fireworks. Nuñez called the police action in Lens a case that “raises questions” and said stun grenades are suspended “until the facts surrounding this case have been clarified.”
The grenades are described as non-lethal devices that disperse small rubber pellets on detonation, the BBC noted.
Use-of-force investigations and nationwide disruption
Nuñez said the police watchdog IGPN has opened 18 investigations into whether officers acted proportionately during the demonstrations. The interior ministry reported 488 arrests and 43 security personnel injured on Tuesday, as tear gas and water cannon were used in some cities.
Education Minister Édouard Geffray told France’s National Assembly that 24 schools had been set alight or vandalized badly enough to close for weeks, affecting 30,000 pupils. More than 500 schools were fully or partially shut on Wednesday, according to the BBC.
Other injuries under scrutiny
Concerns were heightened by a separate case in which a 14-year-old was hit in the face by a tear gas grenade last week near Paris; the boy’s lawyer said he lost several teeth and suffered a fractured jaw, and a police officer has been charged, the BBC reported.
In Strasbourg, a 16-year-old suffered a serious hand injury outside a school on Wednesday, reportedly while handling a mortar firework, according to the BBC. Prosecutors also opened an attempted murder investigation after a 17-year-old alleged an officer held his head underwater during an arrest near a river in Belfort; French reports cited by the BBC say the teen has himself been charged with aggravated assault for allegedly attacking the officer.
Police union pushback
UNSA police union’s national secretary Jean-Paul Nascimento told FranceInfo he was skeptical the stun-grenade suspension was justified, saying it was based “on emotion.” Warning of closer-quarters clashes without the devices, he said, “That’s where there will perhaps be even more injuries.”
Political crossfire and the road ahead
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is expected to address the school protests Wednesday evening and has condemned violence since demonstrations began in mid-September. He said 215 students, 85 staff, and 715 police have been hurt over that period. More than 6,500 people have been stopped or arrested, according to the interior ministry.
President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting late Tuesday with Lecornu and other ministers. Government figures put Tuesday’s turnout at more than 250,000, while students’ unions said 450,000 and called for another round of protests on Thursday, the BBC reported. Ryad Rani of the USL high school union told French radio: “We are telling M. Nuñez, calm your police officers down and call for restraint.”
The protests have also fueled partisan clashes. The prime minister accused the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) of trying to “sow chaos” ahead of April’s presidential succession elections, according to the BBC. LFI’s Manuel Bompard said it took “several children being maimed for life for Nuñez to give up using grenades against high school students,” while Marine Le Pen said President Macron was “always on the side of attacking the police,” the BBC reported.
