The Ministry of the Interior announced that it had made 1,949 arrests in France on Thursday as part of the movement to block high schools, in particular for attacks on people holding public authority, violence and crowds. The prefects issued orders prohibiting demonstrations on Friday near closed high schools.

Published on: 01/10/2026 - 11:31 Modified on: 02/10/2026 - 09:09

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The high school scolding gets harder. Principals attacked, police officers or demonstrators injured, degraded establishments, deliberately set fires... The blocking movement of high school students, joined by students, to demand more resources escalated on Thursday, October 1 in several large cities in the country, forcing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to convene a crisis unit at midday.

In the evening, all the prefects issued orders prohibiting demonstrations on Friday near high schools closed that day, in response to the movement punctuated by violence, AFP learned from the Ministry of the Interior. Thirteen Parisian high schools will be closed on Friday. In all departments, the same instructions were given, the Interior Ministry added.

A total of 1,949 people were arrested on Thursday in France, mainly for attacks on people holding public authority, violence and crowds, announced the Ministry of the Interior.

During the day, Place Beauvau counted 305 injured police officers and gendarmes. Minister Laurent Nuñez, who condemned "unbridled violence", brought together at 7 p.m. the prefects, the directors of the police and the gendarmerie as well as the heads of the intelligence services to take stock of the situation, the ministry said.

He noted "a worsening of the situation which no longer has anything to do with the legitimate expression of high school students' demands but now presents all the characteristics of a situation of urban violence." He cited the throwing of fireworks, the burning of public buildings and the looting of stores in particular.

Also read “We ask for the baccalaureate, that brings us the BAC”: in Saint-Denis, the anger of high school students

Overflows in Marseille

Overflows took place in Marseille, with around a hundred trash fires, according to the prefecture. All afternoon, groups of high school students faced the CRS in the city center.

Gathered in front of the police station with cries of “Free our comrades”, a procession of high school and university students was pushed back to the Canebière by the police, who used tear gas. Several trash can and bicycle fires also required the intervention of firefighters.

Bus, tram and metro traffic had to be interrupted in the morning due to damage and attacks on the network. It will not resume before Friday, said the Régie des transports métropolitains (RTM).

The RTM reported “a driver injured in the face and taken to hospital” and “four buses damaged, including one set on fire”. The operator denounced “the unacceptable and unprecedented nature of the events that affected it”.

At the Victor-Hugo high school, located near the Saint-Charles station, several altercations between the CRS and the high school students took place in the morning, after trash cans, a high school door and the van which was nearby burned, noted an AFP journalist.

In this establishment, a principal and his assistant were splashed by gasoline that individuals were putting in containers, the rectorate said.

Many cities under tension

In several towns, trash cans were overturned on the road, fires lit in front of or in establishments, projectiles thrown, bus shelters broken and fireworks and tear gas fired, AFP journalists noted.

In Normandy, two principals were the targets of “attacks”, according to the academy. Just like the head of a high school in Ingré, near Orléans, according to the rectorate. Or the principal of a vocational high school in Pas-de-Calais, targeted by a “lit firecracker”, according to the Béthune prosecutor’s office.

In Perpignan, where six high schools were blocked, a young girl was injured in the head during the demonstration in the city center by a projectile coming from the crowd, according to the police. In Carcassonne, two police officers were slightly injured, according to the prefecture. In Paris, it was a municipal police officer who was injured by young people who attacked his vehicle, the socialist mayor of the capital, Emmanuel Grégoire, lamented on X.

“Young people have to do shit to be heard”

Violent incidents also took place in Besançon as well as in Toulouse, where young people invaded certain arteries and the tram rails, completely blocking traffic in certain points.

In Strasbourg, tram traffic was interrupted to “limit the movements of demonstrators”.

"We are demonstrating against overcrowded classes, against this government which (...) does not invest in heating, air conditioning, the salaries of our teachers", explained to AFP Maëlle, a 16-year-old high school student at the Malherbe high school in Caen. “Some people set trash cans on fire, I would prefer that they demonstrate with words rather than these actions.”

“Young people have to fuck up so that we can hear them, we have no other way,” said Lola, a second-year student, in front of a blocked Rennes high school.

Calling for an “act two” after the first national mobilization on Tuesday, students joined the movement on Thursday, with around thirty campuses blocked, according to the Student Union union.

“We have crossed a red line”

The Prime Minister denounced on Monday on the

The leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon immediately responded by accusing him of having "ordered the repression" of the movement "with an obvious racist aftertaste" and by calling on elected officials and rebellious activists to "interpose themselves wherever" they can.

To try to appease the anger of high school students, the Minister of Education Édouard Geffray proposed on Wednesday the opening of a “consultation platform” to which “all high school students will be able to contribute”. He met Thursday in Versailles with high school students elected from the Academic Council for High School Life.

"We have crossed a red line. We are blinding young people like they did with the Yellow Vests," reacted to AFP Ryad Rani, president of the High School Union (USL), who was not calmed by these announcements.

A “very proportional use” of “intermediate weapons”

Three investigations were opened by the IGPN, the police, after high school students were injured during blockades of establishments. On Wednesday, in Tours, a young man was injured in the head and hospitalized for injuries "compatible" with an LBD shot, according to the city's prosecutor's office.

“There is a very proportional use” of “intermediate weapons”, notably tear gas, however assured the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez.

While the high school students were mobilizing, the government presented its draft budget on Thursday morning, notably planning to charge 178 euros in annual BTS fees to non-scholarship students, 270 euros for those in preparatory classes for the grandes écoles.

“Is Sébastien Lecornu an arsonist?” reacted Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, speaking of “additional provocation”.

With AFP

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