France’s school protests have continued to escalate. Thousands of arrests have been made, while 564 school buildings were blocked again on October 2. Radical students were seen setting buildings on fire and attacking police officers again.
Students have been demonstrating for more money since September 21, when the first blockades appeared in the Val-de-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis departments around Paris. They complain about dilapidated buildings, overcrowded classes and too few teachers.
The Union syndicale lycéenne, the main pupils’ union, called for nationwide blockades on September 28. The 2027 draft budget for the education ministry provides for a rise of €1.2 billion, though it also removes some 1,500 teaching posts.
Blocking access to schools has been a major objective in many cases.
Though, according to the Government, the protests have been infiltrated by ultra-left agitators and by youths with no connection to the schools, making things turn violent.
On October 1 a trainee police lieutenant was chased, thrown down and kicked in Paris as youths shouted “kill her”.
The Paris police prefecture said she had been sent as reinforcement to Place Auguste-Métivier, in the 11th arrondissement, where about a hundred people were targeting officers.
She stopped on Avenue Gambetta, in the 20th, to pick up a radio that had fallen.
Several people caught her, held her and threatened her with death.
Video posted online shows her being pursued, tripped and struck while on the ground. The police union Alliance described her as “hunted like prey”.
She has filed a complaint at the 20th arrondissement station.
Interior minister Laurent Nuñez called the attack intolerable and said those responsible would be found and prosecuted. The prefecture called the acts “unspeakable”.
Nuñez said 305 police officers and gendarmes were injured on October 1, which he described as “unbridled violence”.
On October 2, new images emerged of another police officer being knocked out by a group of youngsters at about 9.15am in front of the Courbet lycée in Belfort, eastern France.
The police officer, who was in plain clothes, is first projected to the ground when he appears to be about to arrest a masked individual. Once on the ground, many young people come to kick and punch him on his head. He briefly lost consciousness.
French media reported that an investigation was being opened for attempted murder of a holder of public authority, committed as part of a group.
The Nelson Mandela lycée in Nantes, western France, had its entrance hall burned down and will be closed for a month.
In Paris, the Beaugrenelle lycée was set on fire by demonstrators.
Bystanders also were attacked.
In Lille, northern France, youngsters pushed a bin from a bridge, narrowly missing a car.
🚨 ALERTE – Les blocus se poursuivent avec un INCENDIE devant le lycée de Beaugrenelle, à Paris. pic.twitter.com/jmyZOIImIM
— Frontières (@Frontieresmedia) October 2, 2026
The interior ministry put October 1’s arrests at 1,949. At midday on October 2, 600 arrests were made. Close to 2,000 people were in custody that afternoon, about 90 per cent of them minors.
Nearly 3,000 lycée pupils, between 15 and 18 years old, have been detained since the protests began.
Of about 3,700 lycées, 1,027 were affected, including 222 blockades.
About 900 actions were recorded, and every department is now involved. University students joined in, with about 30 campuses blocked.
Damage in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region alone has been estimated at between €25 million and €30 million.
Education minister Édouard Geffray said 235 people on the education side had been injured, 65 of them staff, including 40 headteachers, and 160 of them pupils.
He said the movement had been “taken hostage by ultra-violent groups”.
Hundreds of schools were closed on October 2 again, either because fire-safety systems were destroyed or because staff were targeted.
Prefects have banned gatherings outside the closed schools. In Paris, police prefect Patrice Faure banned them at 13 lycées.
The closures have not stopped the disorder.
On October 2, Ouest-France reported mortar fire and bin fires outside Lycée Bougainville in Nantes.
The Essonne prefecture reported 53 arrests and 17 injured officers and gendarmes. In Manosque, southeast France, the mayor said several hundred pupils had attacked the town hall with firecrackers and mortars.
October 1’s damage included a bin fire that spread to the façade of Lycée Nelson Mandela in Nantes, a similar blaze in Rouen, and, in Marseille, staff at Lycée Victor Hugo splashed with petrol and a fire engine forced out and set alight.
An M6 journalist was assaulted there and the broadcaster said it would file a complaint. A firefighter suffered a broken nose.
Un de nos journalistes a été violemment agressé à Marseille alors qu'il couvrait le blocage devant le lycée Saint-Exupéry. Il a été encerclé et frappé. Sa caméra a été détruite. Le Groupe M6 condamne avec la plus grande fermeté cette agression et annonce porter plainte. pic.twitter.com/QEXxGIv9KP
— M6 Info (@m6info) October 1, 2026
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s office said after a crisis meeting that intelligence services regarded the unrest as a manoeuvre organised by La France Insoumise (LFI) and ultra-left proxies. It said the situation had moved from school blockades to urban violence.
An anarchist activist with close ties to the LFI, Ritchy Thibault, 23, who used to be parliamentary collaborator of LFI MP Ersilia Soudais, was taken into custody in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, after riling up the crowd and telling them “We’re going to attack all the police stations in this country”, “tomorrow we’re going to set fire to the Élysée”, “we’re going to blow everything up, it’s going to be fire”.
He is being investigated for provocation to a crime, participation in a group formed with a view to preparing violence against persons or property and contempt. He was already barred from street demonstrations under judicial supervision in a separate case.
Émilie Rekik-Kara, an opposition councillor in Saint-Priest, near Lyon, southeast France, and expelled from LFI in 2024, said she had advised young people involved in incidents at the Condorcet lycée there to cover their faces. The town’s mayor, Gilles Gascon, has called on her to resign.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard told the government not to “descend into conspiracy theories”, saying the movement was spontaneous and driven by what he called unworthy conditions in schools.
Justice minister Gérald Darmanin has asked prosecutors to pursue parents civilly for damage caused by their children, so that repairs do not fall on public bodies alone.
Geffray is due to meet pupil representatives on October 2. He has also announced a consultation platform for pupils to set out their demands.
🚨 ALERTE – Un lycéen a brûlé une femme en utilisant un déodorant et un briquet. pic.twitter.com/EUueXaFRhA
— Frontières (@Frontieresmedia) October 2, 2026
