France Student Protests Spread Nationwide: Officials Report Over 5,000 Arrests and 600 Police Injured

French authorities reported more than 5,000 police interpellations between Monday, 28 September, and Friday, 2 October 2026, as secondary school protests spread across the country. A National Police spokesperson separately said more than 600 police officers and gendarmes had been injured since the movement began.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 1,747 people were interpellated on Friday alone, bringing the cumulative total since Monday above 5,000. He said approximately 85% of those interpellated were minors and most of them were lycée pupils.

Police Report Seizing Axes and Petrol Bombs

Agathe Foucault, a police commissioner and National Police spokesperson, gave the injury figure during an interview on Saturday, 3 October. She said police checks had uncovered sections of scaffolding, axes and petrol bombs.

Foucault distinguished between pupils attending gatherings without intending to commit violence and people arriving with objects that could be used in attacks. She said officers were intervening in response to offences and violence.

Asked about people injured during police operations, she acknowledged that the outcome was 'not satisfactory'. 'Our objective, when we intervene, is not to injure,' she said.

Foucault also said five investigations had been opened by the Inspectorate General of the National Police, known as the IGPN. The opening of an investigation does not establish that an officer committed misconduct.

The number of interpellations is separate from the number of people placed in police custody. Reporting on Friday put the latter at approximately 2,000, before Nuñez announced the higher cumulative interpellation figure later that day. Neither measure represents the number of people charged or convicted.

Two Dozen Schools Burned or Ransacked

Education Minister Édouard Geffray said on Sunday, 4 October, that 24 educational establishments had been 'burned or ransacked' and 78 education staff had been injured since the unrest began. He estimated the damage, including vandalised staff accommodation, at between €20 million and €30 million (£17 million to £25.5 million).

Geffray said between 400 and 500 lycées had suspended lessons on Friday because safety conditions were not met or staff had been directly threatened. A similar number were expected to suspend classes fully or partially on Monday, 5 October.

Those figures concern lesson suspensions rather than every school affected by demonstrations or blockades. Nuñez reported that 735 establishments had been affected on Friday, a broader measure of disruption.

The movement began at a secondary school in Créteil, south-east of Paris, in mid-September. Protests subsequently spread amid complaints about staffing shortages, absent teachers, class sizes and school conditions.

The government called for lessons to resume wherever safety conditions permitted. Its response also included a timetable for addressing some of the pupils' demands.

Unions Call for Tuesday Mobilisation

The Union syndicale lycéenne called for protests to continue after meeting Geffray on Friday, saying the government had not offered concrete measures. Its president, Ryad Rani, urged pupils to join the national mobilisation on Tuesday, 6 October.

Education unions also called on staff to support the mobilisation, including through strike action. In a joint statement, they urged the government to listen to pupils' demands.

Several organisations, including a magistrates' union and the French Human Rights League, criticised what they described as disproportionate police action against young demonstrators. Their criticism concerned the policing of the protests, alongside the education demands behind the mobilisation.

Nuñez rejected the allegations on Sunday, saying officers were protecting pupils and students who wanted to demonstrate peacefully. The government continued to call for peaceful protests as unions prepared for Tuesday's mobilisation.