School Protests France Live Updates: 15-Year-Old Boy Loses Hand in Lens Police Clash as 190 Students Are Injured and 5,000 Arrested – Check What Happened

School Protests France Live Updates: France’s growing student protest movement took a grim turn on Monday when a 15-year-old boy suffered a severe hand injury during clashes near a high school in Lens. The incident came as teenagers across the country continued to protest overcrowded classrooms, staff shortages, and deteriorating school buildings, with hundreds of schools disrupted and a nationwide mobilisation planned for Tuesday.

Officials said the teenager’s life was not in danger and that emergency services took him quickly to a nearby hospital. The circumstances surrounding the injury, however, remain under investigation, with different accounts emerging about what happened immediately before the explosion.

The incident has added to mounting pressure on the French government, which is already facing criticism over both school conditions and the policing of the demonstrations.

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School Protests France Live Updates: What Happened to the 15-Year-Old Student in Lens?

The incident happened Monday morning near Auguste Béhal High School in Lens, in northern France.

Pas-de-Calais prefect François-Xavier Lauch described it as a “very serious incident” and said the teenager’s life was not in danger.

Lauch said a larger group of students had gathered outside the school than on previous days. He said protesters threw stones, fireworks and mortars at police officers who were initially at the scene.

Authorities then deployed a CRS riot police unit to maintain order.

“The search for explosive materials conducted on the aircraft has been completed, and no irregularities have been detected,” is not related to this incident and should not be attributed here; the relevant French authorities instead confirmed that an investigation into the Lens injury would examine the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The French police watchdog, the General Inspection of the National Police (IGPN), has been tasked with investigating what happened.

School Protests France Live Updates: Did a Police Grenade Cause the Teenager’s Injury?

Reports have differed over the precise sequence of events.

A police union source cited by AFP said the teenager appeared to have picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot police before it exploded in his hand. Reuters also reported the account while noting that the attribution came from local reporting rather than directly from the prefect.

However, a girl who said she was standing near the teenager gave a different account to regional newspaper La Voix du Nord.

“He didn’t pick it up. I was there, I saw it. He didn’t pick it up, he didn’t catch it,” she was quoted as saying.

Lens Mayor Sylvain Robert also said the circumstances needed further clarification.

“Like you, and like many others, I have seen some videos showing the aftermath. But I did not see how the operation was organised, either by the police or by the students,” he told French media.