A 15-year-old student had his hand amputated during violent clashes with the police on Monday morning at the Behal Institute in Lens, in northern France. Police sources told Le Figaro that the teenager tried to pick up and throw back at the police a "dispersion grenade" of tear gas.
The serious incident has caused a great shock in France, with accusations flying against police violence and the infiltration of "troublemakers" from the extreme left in student protests over the deterioration of public education. The toll from the first week of protests across the country was over 500 injured and 5,000 detained.
"A student was seriously injured during a demonstration and had his hand amputated," said Lens prefect François Xavier Lauch on Monday morning. "Fortunately, his life is not in danger, and we urgently transferred him to a hospital in Lille."
"The events are now under a judicial investigation, and I cannot provide many more details at the moment," added the prefect. The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) has indeed opened an investigation for "a crime of violence resulting in mutilation or permanent disability."
The events took place at 10:30 in the morning during a gathering of around a hundred students at the entrance to the Behal Institute, one of over 400 secondary education centers that were once again blockaded on Monday after a week of protests. Police sources stated that the officers were attacked with stones and fireworks mortars, leading the riot police (CRS) to intervene to disperse the protesters.
Meanwhile, the police reported the arrest of a 17-year-old high school student in Aix-en-Provence, as the alleged perpetrator of another incident where a passerby lost an eye during a student protest last Thursday. Over the weekend, another 15-year-old teenager was arrested for assaulting a woman with a spray used as a flamethrower in Marseille.
The League of Human Rights (LDH) denounced on Monday "the violent drift from the rule of law" during the law enforcement interventions in the face of student protests. LDH President Nathalie Theio expressed her "utmost concern" ahead of the massive demonstrations in support of students scheduled in Paris and other cities on October 6, supported by the unions.