A headteacher was doused in petrol and fires were started in two school, officials have said, as violent student protests rage in France.
The headteacher in Marseille’s Victor Hugo high school suffered injuries after the attack, the prosecutor’s office said, as thousands of young people rallied against staff shortages and dilapidated school buildings.
Outside the Saint-Exupery high school, in the same town, hundreds of young people surrounded a fire truck that had arrived to put out a blaze in the school building, forcing firefighters to flee the vehicle, before setting it alight.
More than 600 people have been arrested in the widespread violence, which spread rapidly after starting as largely peaceful protests against the state of the education system, calling for better resources, building renovations, and good learning conditions.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office held a crisis meeting on Thursday afternoon on the protests, as Paris looks to prevent the violence from spreading further.
Education minister Édouard Geffray later said he would be meeting with union representatives on Friday, with the goal to “turn these exchanges into concrete progress in service of the students, the staff, and the Schools”.
The demonstrations and blockades have become a political flashpoint at a sensitive time for the government after it unveiled a series of unpopular spending cuts in its 2027 budget on Thursday.
Several schools in Liège were targeted by angry protesters, following what interior minister Bernard Quintin said was a “minority of activists” who have been “fanning the flames, sowing chaos in education, and dragging the youth along in their wake.
In the western city of Nantes, a fire was set off in a the Nelson Mandela high school, with the school’s deputy head Gaelle Cordier condemning an act of “arson”.
In the Étampes commune, near the Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire high school, clashes between police and protesters left thirteen officers with minor injuries, according to Le Parisien.
In the Aude department, blockades were reported in several areas, with rubbish bins set on fires while other projectiles, including fireworks, were thrown.
Twelve arrests were made for "possession of explosive devices, attempted arson, incitement to rebellion, or insulting a person holding public authority,” the prefect of the department said.
Meanwhile in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, crowds of young people massed in front of a line of police. One student held up a sign marked with: "Can we explain ourselves without being teargassed?"
Condemning the attack on the fire truck, interior minister Laurent Nunez said: “This act of gratuitous and serious violence is unacceptable. These women and men intervene every day, day and night, to rescue all the women and men of Marseille.”
But students have accused the police of using heavy-handed tactics including the use of teargas. The government has criticised the violence that has broken out during some of the protests but has said difficulties in high schools should be acknowledged and addressed.
Mr Nunez said that, in some places, troublemakers were moving from school to school to incite violence. Mr Geffray, meanwhile, called for schools to hold classes remotely if protesters were blocking their premises.
"Violence will not keep our students from their fundamental right to an education," he said in a post on social media platform X.
Student unions have called on young people to continue the country-wide protests, which has reportedly affected more than 350 schools in France.
"It is through numbers that we will make the government and their world bend! See you tomorrow at all our places of study and next Tuesday at demonstrations for an act 3 of this movement!" the organisations said.
