Multiple teenagers severely maimed during clashes with French police

Protests by high school pupils demanding better conditions in France have left several children seriously hurt amid a police crackdown. Authorities report 215 students and 715 officers injured since the demonstrations began in late September.

The students, ranging from 15 to 18 years old, say their schools are understaffed and classrooms are overcrowded. Some buildings also lack proper equipment.

While authorities deployed tear gas and other crowd-control measures to suppress what they described as "urban violence," labor unions, human rights groups, and students accused police of using disproportionate force. 

In response to mounting criticism, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced late Monday that police have launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of officer brutality since the demonstrations began.

In the northern town of Lens, a 15-year-old lost a hand during a protest on Monday. One police union source said the boy picked up a sting-ball grenade that riot officers fired. However, a witness told La Voix du Nord newspaper that the grenade fell on the teenager.

Local prosecutor Etienne Thieffry said late Monday that he could not yet determine “whether this teenager had actually picked up a grenade that exploded in his hand, or whether the grenade had landed on him.”

In the central town of Tours, a 16-year-old lost vision in his right eye after a serious head injury during the blockade of Balzac High School on Wednesday. 

Local prosecutor Catherine Sorita-Minard said his wounds are “compatible with the impact of a defensive bullet of the blast ball type.”

Her office said the family has filed a legal complaint for “violence by a person with public authority.” Relatives of the boy, named Mael, stated he had “absolutely no involvement, whether directly or indirectly, in any activist or political activity whatsoever.” “He is simply a teenager who found himself caught up in the events,” they added.

In Saint-Ouen-L’Aumone, northwest of Paris, a 14-year-old identified as Eden lost most of his teeth on Monday last week after an officer appeared to shoot a grenade at him from very close range. “His jaw is sealed shut; he can no longer speak and he eats through a straw,” his mother told the media on Monday, adding that his whole upper set was broken and “his lower teeth torn out.”

Widely shared video footage shows three helmeted riot officers confronting a student. After one officer strikes the opening blow, the teenager responds with a kick before a projectile from a grenade launcher hits him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Lawyer Elsa Marcel said the officer could not have overlooked that his weapon could fatally strike a child when shot at point-blank range from a distance of 1.5 meters (5 feet). On Monday, the family prepared to file a legal complaint for "attempted intentional homicide."

On Thursday, a blast ball struck and wounded a 16-year-old in the eye near two high schools in Argenteuil, a northwestern suburb of Paris. According to the local prosecutor's office, officers deployed defensive ball launchers in response to two individuals firing fireworks at them from a distance of about 20 meters. Authorities added that the injured teenager's description matched one of the suspects involved in the attack

The prosecutor’s office said two officers deployed defensive ball launchers, adding that “the description of the young man taken into care by the emergency services appeared to correspond to that of one of the two individuals who had been involved.”

Paul Vannier, a lawmaker from the hard-left France Unbowed party that has backed the protests, said the teen remained hospitalized. “At this point the doctors are unable to say whether he will lose the use of his eye or not,” he added.