PARIS — France on Wednesday suspended the use of stun grenades for policing student-led protests that have swept the country, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, amid growing accusations of police brutality following several days of demonstrations nationwide.Nuñez said he had requested the pause until the facts of Monday’s incident in which a student’s hand was blown off had been “clarified”, with conflicting accounts offered by protesters and officials.The announcement came a day after hundreds of thousands of students and supporters marched across France to demand more funding for education and better conditions in high schools, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to convene an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and other key ministers to try to defuse the crisis.The disruption continued on Wednesday with more than 500 schools fully or partially shut, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is due to speak about the school protests in an evening address.Police have opened 18 internal investigations into allegations of misconduct since the protests began, Nunez said.A 15-year-old lost a hand in the northern city of Lens on Monday after police fired a stun grenade.The boy’s hand was torn off after a so-called anti-encirclement grenade was fired in unclear circumstances near the Auguste Béhal high school in the northern city near Lille.Authorities have said he picked up the grenade which then exploded, but students have alleged he was hit directly after an officer fired.According to the local prefect, the incident took place when police were confronted by a group of 200-250 students throwing stones and fireworks.The stun grenade is considered a non-lethal weapon, but sends out small rubber pellets when it detonates.”When there is suspicion of disproportionate force, there are always judicial investigations,” Nuñez said, affirming that the government was “here to protect high school students”.Earlier, a 14-year-old student was hit in the face by a tear gas grenade at such close range that he lost several teeth. A policeman was charged on Tuesday over the incident in the capital, Paris.Rights groups, students and parents’ groups have accused authorities of using disproportionate force against minors. The government says the protest movement has been hijacked by outsiders and morphed into urban violence.The Ministry of the Interior said 6,100 people have been arrested since the protests began last month, the overwhelming majority of them minors.More than 1,800 people are being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors, the Ministry of Justice said, without specifying the crimes.At least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers have been injured in clashes, according to Lecornu’s office.Protests started in late September with students blocking entrances to hundreds of high schools over complaints of dilapidated facilities and teacher shortages.Parents, teachers and union workers joined the demonstrations in Paris and other cities on Tuesday amid accusations that police were using disproportionate force.Sporadic violent clashes have broken out between police and protesters at what otherwise have been largely peaceful demonstrations.Lecornu on Tuesday condemned the violence and told lawmakers that it would not be tolerated, while also rejecting accusations that the government had ordered “police repression” against protesters.PARIS — France on Wednesday suspended the use of stun grenades for policing student-led protests that have swept the country, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, amid growing accusations of police brutality following several days of demonstrations nationwide.Nuñez said he had requested the pause until the facts of Monday’s incident in which a student’s hand was blown off had been “clarified”, with conflicting accounts offered by protesters and officials.The announcement came a day after hundreds of thousands of students and supporters marched across France to demand more funding for education and better conditions in high schools, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to convene an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and other key ministers to try to defuse the crisis.The disruption continued on Wednesday with more than 500 schools fully or partially shut, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is due to speak about the school protests in an evening address.Police have opened 18 internal investigations into allegations of misconduct since the protests began, Nunez said.A 15-year-old lost a hand in the northern city of Lens on Monday after police fired a stun grenade.The boy’s hand was torn off after a so-called anti-encirclement grenade was fired in unclear circumstances near the Auguste Béhal high school in the northern city near Lille.Authorities have said he picked up the grenade which then exploded, but students have alleged he was hit directly after an officer fired.According to the local prefect, the incident took place when police were confronted by a group of 200-250 students throwing stones and fireworks.The stun grenade is considered a non-lethal weapon, but sends out small rubber pellets when it detonates.”When there is suspicion of disproportionate force, there are always judicial investigations,” Nuñez said, affirming that the government was “here to protect high school students”.Earlier, a 14-year-old student was hit in the face by a tear gas grenade at such close range that he lost several teeth. A policeman was charged on Tuesday over the incident in the capital, Paris.Rights groups, students and parents’ groups have accused authorities of using disproportionate force against minors. The government says the protest movement has been hijacked by outsiders and morphed into urban violence.The Ministry of the Interior said 6,100 people have been arrested since the protests began last month, the overwhelming majority of them minors.More than 1,800 people are being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors, the Ministry of Justice said, without specifying the crimes.At least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers have been injured in clashes, according to Lecornu’s office.Protests started in late September with students blocking entrances to hundreds of high schools over complaints of dilapidated facilities and teacher shortages.Parents, teachers and union workers joined the demonstrations in Paris and other cities on Tuesday amid accusations that police were using disproportionate force.Sporadic violent clashes have broken out between police and protesters at what otherwise have been largely peaceful demonstrations.Lecornu on Tuesday condemned the violence and told lawmakers that it would not be tolerated, while also rejecting accusations that the government had ordered “police repression” against protesters.
France bans police from using stun grenades at student protests
