Saint-Denis mayor Bally Bagayoko was tear-gassed after stepping between riot police and student protesters during a march in Paris, with footage showing the mayor confronting officers and calling for them to stop.
The incident on Tuesday, 6 October, put the 53-year-old politician in the spotlight as France's student protests intensified over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and deteriorating school buildings. Bagayoko later explained that he felt compelled to intervene because the students could have been his own children.
