A 15-year-old school student had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade during a protest in the French city of Lens. The incident comes amid a nationwide wave of unrest and street violence that has gripped France since late September.
Demonstrators demand increased funding for public schools and better learning conditions, including more teachers, smaller classes, and repairs to dilapidated buildings.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Francois-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of the northern Pas-de-Calais department, reported that the teenager’s “hand was torn off,” apparently by a police grenade, during a protest outside Behal high school in Lens earlier in the day.
“There was no hand left, not even his wrist, there was nothing there,” one student told BFMTV, describing the gruesome scene. The boy was rushed to a hospital in Lille and is in non-life-threatening condition, according to officials.
Lauch stated that violence erupted after an estimated 200 students began hurling objects at police officers who were deployed to the school to lift a blockade imposed by protesters.
Police sources told AFP that the victim picked up the grenade, apparently intending to throw it back at the officers. An eyewitness account by a fellow protester, however, suggested that the teenager was instead hit by the grenade. The local prosecutor said investigators have yet to establish what happened. The General Inspectorate of the National Police has launched an investigation.
French police have several types of non-lethal explosive crowd-control devices in their arsenal, including grenades capable of dispersing rubber pellets and the GM2L tear-gas and stun grenade. The type involved in the Lens incident has not been officially established, although French media reports that witness accounts and footage appear consistent with a GM2L.
Amid escalating street violence across France, Marine Tondelier, the national secretary of the Ecologists party, called for reform of police crowd-control protocols. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founder of the left-wing France Unbowed party, wrote on X on Monday that the “escalation of police tactics is out of control,” eclipsing even the May 1968 demonstrations.
“Acts of disgraceful violence, abuses of power, and provocations are multiplying without limit or restraint,” Melenchon said.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office accused France Unbowed and “its far-left proxies” of orchestrating the unrest – which the party has denied.
According to the French authorities, more than 5,060 people have been arrested since late September. Around 650 police officers, 78 education staff, and at least 190 students have also been injured in the unrest.
French police have repeatedly been accused of using excessive force when confronting protesters. In 2018-2019, at the height of the Yellow Vest demonstrations, at least 20 protesters lost an eye, while others had theirs hands partially or entirely blown off after being hit by 40 mm rubber projectiles and explosive grenades.
In March 2019, then-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for a comprehensive investigation into reports of excessive use of force by French police.