A 15-year-old student lost his hand on Monday when a police grenade exploded during a confrontation between riot police and student protesters outside a high school in Lens, northern France — the most shocking incident yet in a wave of school protests sweeping the country.
What happened outside Béhal lycée
The "very serious incident" happened on Monday morning outside the Auguste Béhal high school in Lens, in the Pas-de-Calais region, according to prefect François-Xavier Lauch. A larger gathering of students than on previous days — about 200 people — had assembled outside the school, and threw stones, fireworks and mortars at local officers, the prefect told French media. Overrun, local police called in a riot police unit.
What happened next is disputed. The prefect and a police union source say the boy, from the nearby town of Wingles, appeared to have picked up a police stun grenade to throw it back when it exploded in his hand. But a teenage classmate who stood next to him told local radio Ici Hauts-de-France a different story: "All of a sudden, something hit him on the hand and it exploded. I saw his hand explode... He did not pick it up. It hit him in the hand."
There are also conflicting reports about the grenade type — some outlets say a sting-ball grenade that disperses rubber pellets, others a stun grenade that emits a loud bang and flash. The teenager was rushed to a hospital in Lille; the prefect said his life is not in danger, while public prosecutor Étienne Thieffry of Béthune called it a "serious injury". Thieffry added he could not say "if the lycée pupil picked up the grenade or whether it was thrown at him." An investigation by the police watchdog IGPN is underway, and Lens mayor Sylvain Robert said the circumstances still needed to be clarified.
A movement boiling over
The injury came on the worst day yet of a protest movement that has rattled President Emmanuel Macron's government. On Monday, 413 lycées were hit by blockades or demonstrations, and up to 500 of the country's 3,700 high schools were partially or fully closed. In the Paris region, a third of the 468 lycées for 15- to 17-year-olds were expected to close.
Since late September, students have barred school entrances to protest teacher absences, overcrowded classes, dilapidated buildings and a new admissions system they say deepens inequality. The unrest has been severe: around 5,000 people — most of them minors — have been arrested, more than 600 police officers injured, about 170 students hurt, and 24 schools burned or ransacked, with property damage estimated in the tens of millions. In Paris, the entrance of the Vauquelin high school was torched on Monday, trapping teachers and pupils inside until firefighters rescued around 100 people.
The government accuses hard-left activists of hijacking the movement, while Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has vowed to restore order and Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin says parents of rioters should pay reparations. Rights groups push back: the French Human Rights League's Nathalie Tehio accused security forces of using disproportionate methods against protesters, many of them legally minors, and Amnesty International France warned that force against teenagers must remain proportionate.
What comes next
The national student organization has promised to escalate the protests starting Tuesday, with a nationwide day of demonstrations expected and teachers' unions calling a strike. Paris police chief Patrice Faure has urged students to abandon blockades in favour of peaceful protest. With the government trying to pass a deficit-narrowing 2027 budget and elections to replace Macron due next year, the lycée revolt has become the defining crisis of his final stretch in office.
Watch: Fox News footage shows violent school protests erupting across France as hundreds of schools close.
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