A 17-year-old demonstrator lost his hand when a grenade exploded during a protest in Saint-Étienne on Saturday, October 17 — the second teenager to suffer such an injury in France's protest wave, and a fresh blow to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who had already suspended the use of police stun grenades after the first case.
The teenager was rushed to the city's university hospital after the blast, which happened on the sidelines of the October 17 mobilisation in front of a shopping centre, where demonstrators faced police for around an hour from 3 p.m. — tear gas on one side, mortar fire and fireworks on the other. An investigation has been entrusted to the police inspectorate, the IGPN, and to the gendarmerie's own inspectorate, the IGGN, and the courts have opened an inquiry to establish the causes of the injuries.
What caused the blast is still not established
It remains unclear whether the teenager was hit by a grenade or picked one up before it exploded — and whether the device came from the police. "We are told that it would be a grenade from the gendarmerie. I cannot confirm it. There will obviously be an investigation," Nuñez said, according to Franceinfo. The Associated Press reported that the minister declined to confirm French media reports that the injury was caused by a police grenade explosion.
The Saint-Étienne case came less than two weeks after the first: a 15-year-old boy in the northern city of Lens whose hand was blown off during a clash with riot police. After that incident, Nuñez ordered the suspension of stun grenades in the policing of the high-school student movement "until light has been shed on what happened in this case," saying there was a "strong possibility" that a non-lethal stun grenade had caused the injury. But the suspension applied only to the student movement — not to other protests, including those staged on Saturdays.
A pattern of serious injuries, not a single accident
The two hand injuries are part of a wider toll that has put French police tactics under intense scrutiny. A 17-year-old girl lost an eye while taking part in a protest in Mulhouse on the same Saturday as the Saint-Étienne blast, and other teenagers have suffered disabling injuries during weeks of high-school blockades and street demonstrations.
Human Rights Watch, in a report published on October 14, condemned what it called excessive force against student protesters, warning that tear gas, stun grenades and other tactics had seriously injured children. The organisation said a 15-year-old had lost a hand after a police stun grenade exploded and a 14-year-old had suffered a shattered jaw after a tear-gas canister was fired at close range. More than 6,800 people have been detained since the demonstrations began, around 86 percent of them children, according to the report, and 36 internal investigations into alleged police misconduct have been opened.
Amnesty International France praised the stun-grenade suspension as an "important first step" but called for a permanent ban on the devices in all policing, warning they can cause permanent hearing loss and other serious injuries. Nuñez told RTL radio that the grenades would remain paused until the facts of the Lens case were clarified, and said 18 internal police investigations had already been opened over alleged brutality — including cases in which a protester lost teeth and another lost sight in an eye.
The schools at the centre of the unrest
The protests began on September 21, when high-school students started blockading schools over what they describe as prolonged under-investment in education: teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and inadequate buildings. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has acknowledged the students' demands as "legitimate" while describing the unrest as the most violent student demonstrations in decades, and has promised a televised address and an action plan on renovating school buildings, hiring teachers and reorganising timetables by the end of October.
Education Minister Édouard Geffray said 24 high schools had been damaged by fire or vandalism to the extent that they would stay closed for weeks, affecting about 30,000 students, with repair costs estimated at between 20 and 30 million euros. The government is also pursuing legislation that would require those responsible for damage to contribute to repair costs.
The street movement has since grown far beyond the schools. On Saturday, October 24, around 410,000 people marched across France, according to the Interior Ministry, with organisers putting the figure near 800,000 — and unions have called for further rallies on October 31 and a nationwide strike on November 5. For Nuñez, the question is now whether a suspension that covers only student protests can hold, when the injuries keep happening on Saturdays outside them.
Reporting based on The Associated Press, Reuters, Franceinfo and Human Rights Watch.