Student protests escalate in France, over 600 arrested and dozens of police officers injured

French security forces arrested more than 600 people, while dozens of police officers and gendarmes were injured, as the protests that have led to high-school blockades and violent clashes escalated, the interior minister said.

The movement in the lycées, attended by pupils aged 15 to 18 during the last three years of secondary education in France, has angered the government.

Since last week, pupils have organised protests outside schools over grievances ranging from timetables and class sizes to teacher shortages.

On Wednesday, 625 people were arrested during the high-school blockades, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, noting a “widening of the movement” and condemning an “escalation of violence” outside several schools.

At least 83 police officers and gendarmes were injured during Wednesday’s protests, which affected a total of 356 schools, he added.

The minister sharply criticised “the targeting of law-enforcement officers, the throwing of pyrotechnics, acts of violence, verbal abuse, attempted arson and what amounts to urban violence”.

Since the unrest began last week, 119 students and staff members have been injured, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said.

Speaking in Madrid, President Emmanuel Macron sharply criticised far-left politicians, whom he accused of “legitimising violence”.

“We do not tolerate vandalism; we came to defend our rights because we have terrible timetables, we work from 8:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the afternoon and that is not fair”, said a pupil at the Montbello high school in the northern city of Lille, which had been blockaded in recent days.