Student protests escalate in France, around 400 schools closed

Around 400 schools in France are expected to remain closed on Friday, after student protests that began over education grievances escalated into violence in several places.

“There are a little more than 400 schools and other educational institutions that I know will be closed,” French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said in an interview.

According to a source close to Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Thursday that the protest movement was initiated by far-left politicians, including members of La France Insoumise (LFI).

LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard denied the claim in comments to French broadcasters.

Protests against the shortage of teachers and dilapidated school buildings erupted in the Paris region last month, but have become increasingly violent as they spread across the country, with dozens injured and police making hundreds of arrests.

Protesting students set fires at at least two high schools on Thursday, while teachers were inadvertently sprayed with petrol at a third in the southern city of Marseille, officials said. At least one car was burned in Strasbourg in the east and police clashed with youths in Toulouse in the southwest.