‘Violence, clashes and damage’: Student protests in France leave hundreds injured, about 2,000 arrested

Anti-riot police face off with student protesters at a blockade at the Lycee Kerichen secondary school in Brest, France, on Oct. 1, 2026. Photo by FRED TANNEAU/AFP via Getty Images

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PARIS, France — French students set fire to bins and erected blockades outside schools in several cities, protesting overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities.

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Several school principals were injured, harassed or assaulted during blockades at high schools on Thursday, according to reports from regional education authorities, prefectures and union representatives.

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Police have already detained hundreds of protesters at the lycees, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for their final three years of secondary education in France.

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The interior ministry said police and gendarmes had made 1,949 arrests on Thursday, while 305 officers had been injured.

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According to interior ministry figures, 1,027 lycees of the 3,700 across France had been affected by the movement’s actions, with blockades at 222 of them.

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The authorities in the Paris region said around 50 schools had been “the scene of violence, clashes and damage”.

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Interior Minister Laurent Nunez condemned what he described as “unbridled violence”.

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The office of prime minister Sebastien Lecornu said the demonstrations had become “urban violence” and cited the intelligence service when saying they had been organized by the radical left

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Manuel Bompard, a leading figure in the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), quickly dismissed the claim, accusing the government of “sinking into conspiratorial thinking” in comments to AFP.

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LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon demanded to know which arm of the intelligence service had said that.

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This latest wave of social unrest comes with tensions already running high over inflation, particularly soaring fuel prices — and just seven months away from France’s presidential election, where opinion polls suggest far-right leader Marine Le Pen is the frontrunner.

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A student protester adds to a burning blockade outside a secondary school in Aubervilliers, north of Paris, France, on Oct. 1, 2026. Photo by LOU BENOIST/AFP via Getty Images

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Since last week, pupils have staged protests outside schools over a range of grievances. They range from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves.

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The protests have spread across the country from the Paris suburbs.

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Riot police have lined up against the students, and the force has launched internal probes after accusations of brutality against three pupils, said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.

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University students also joined in Thursday, blocking access to around 30 campuses, a student union said.

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Among reports of school staff being targeted was one incident in the southern port city of Marseille when a school principal and his deputy were splashed with petrol. A journalist with TV channel M6 was attacked at the same school, local officials said.