France Student Riots: Videos Show Women Being Attacked Amid Anarchy

More than 2,000 people have been arrested in France as the country endures another day of unrest led by student protesters. At least 65 members of teaching staff have been injured since the demonstrations began.

The protests have grown larger and more confrontational throughout the week, with young people taking to the streets to voice grievances over the state of France’s education system.

Students say school days are too long and conditions are poor, citing overheated classrooms and widespread staff shortages. The government has acknowledged that their concerns are legitimate but said there is no justification for violence.

Riot police have been deployed in towns and cities across the country amid reports of schools being set alight and teachers being assaulted.

Officials said at least 65 staff members, including 40 high school principals, have been hurt since the movement began. Around 170 students have also been injured, while more than 100 high schools have sustained what authorities described as “severe damage”.

As many as 400 schools across France are expected to remain closed today. Numerous high schools have also announced plans to hold lessons remotely, particularly in the southern city of Marseille.

A video filmed yesterday in Besançon showed a large crowd shouting as it watched a confrontation between a woman and a teenage boy.

The footage appeared to show the teenager grabbing the woman by the hair before punching her repeatedly.

A local source told Our News Outlet that the altercation was connected to the national protests: “There seems to have been a disagreement between this woman and this young man.

“She said it was foolish to set off firecrackers and cause damage. The young man disagreed and appears to have insulted her, which sparked the fight. The young woman threw the first punch.”

Other videos appeared to show male students assaulting female members of education staff.

One particularly disturbing video filmed in Marseille appeared to show a black-clad youth cornering a woman near a bus stop and aiming a makeshift flamethrower at her.

The teenager was seen igniting an aerosol can and directing the flames towards the woman’s face.

Bystanders screamed as the flames shot towards the woman. She clutched her head while the attacker was seen walking away.

Verified footage shared yesterday appeared to show a lone policewoman being pursued along a city street before a group of young men tripped her.

The video, filmed in the Paris suburbs, ended abruptly with the officer lying on the ground while holding a canister of tear gas.

She is kicked once, before the person filming moves away. They captioned the video ‘police officer swept away’ with laugh-out-loud emojis.

Paris prosecutors today said they had opened an investigation into the incident. 

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez yesterday said: ‘A young trainee lieutenant from the Paris police headquarters was chased, thrown to the ground, and assaulted by several individuals in the 20th arrondissement of Paris.’

He promised to ‘find and prosecute’ the perpetrators of the attack.  

‘The situation is catastrophic,’ one viewer of the video wrote. ‘No-one should condone this.’ 

Their sentiments were echoed by former leader of France’s hard-right National Rally party, politician and lawyer Marine Le Pen.

She wrote on X: ‘The image of this young policewoman, pursued by a howling mob screaming its hatred, thrown to the ground and assaulted, is unbearable.

‘These acts deserve exemplary punishments. Let her know that tonight, millions of French people offer her their warm support.’

National Rally President Jordan Bardella said: ‘Footage of a policewoman being chased through the streets and mobbed on the ground in Paris illustrates what France has become after decades of laxity and mass immigration.

‘How long will we tolerate this barbarism? How long will we let our country sink without reacting?’

Around two-thirds of the more than 2,000 people arrested are in police custody, with up to 90 per cent of them believed to be minors.  

This number already appears to be rising, with officials in Yvelines reporting that 82 arrests have been made this morning. 

Justice minister Gerald Darmanin said today: ‘There is an active and violent minority [participating in the protests]… We’re not entirely sure that they are even high-school students themselves.’

Students have accused police of using excessive force and causing injuries by regularly firing tear gas canisters to disperse the protests. 

Intelligence agencies believe the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-Left, including members of La France Insoumise (LFI).

But senior LFI official Manuel Bompard accused the government of ‘descending into conspiracy theories’. 

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, de-facto leader of LFI, called on students to remain ‘cool-headed’ and to only use ‘non-violent methods’.

But his calls appear to have fallen on deaf ears, as violence continues to spread across the country. 

So far today, at least two Parisian high schools have been set alight. 

Paris firefighters responded to a fire at the Léonard de Vinci high school in the 15th arrondissement, extinguishing flames at the base of the entrance gate. 

In the 13th arrondissement, the entrance to a vocational high school was blackened by flames after a fire involving bicycles and trash cans spread to the school’s gates, according to the police headquarters. The fire was extinguished by firefighters just before 8am. 

In the western city of Rennes, the tension was already palpable outside the Jean-Mace high school with students dressed in black and wearing balaclavas standing not far from a heavy police presence.

‘As far as we’re concerned, we’ve won – our school is closed this morning,’ said Lola, 16, who declined to give her last name.

She condemned what she said was police violence. ‘It makes us even angrier – the police have no right to hit us or use tear gas on us.’

Police used tear gas at the Kerichen high school in Brest, in western France, an AFP photographer said.

In the Occitanie region, police seized several weapons from rioters including baseball bats, smoke grenades and even items needed to make Molotov cocktails.  

In Strasbourg, riot police threw tear gas grenades at protesters near a university campus following clashes. 

Tear gas was also used against young people outside the Jean-Pierre Timbaud high school in Aubervilliers, a town on the outskirts of Paris. 

In Toulouse, police helicopters flew overhead scenes of violence as rioters threw stones at cops and reporters in front of the Déodat de Séverac high school. 

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said ‘parents must clearly step up and tell their children not to go’ to the protests, adding: ‘What matters now is ensuring our children are no longer out on the streets, because they are in danger.’

In a bid to ease tensions, Mr Geffray is set to take meetings with education unions, parents’ associations and students’ associations today in light of the violence. 

Justice Minister Darmanin said he has asked prosecutors to hold parents liable for damage caused by their children during the protests and ‘pay for repairs’.

The LFI described this as an ‘absurd measure’. 

There are also calls for LFI to be investigated for their role in the protests. 

Bruno Le Maire, former minister under Emmanuel Macron, wrote on X that he was demanding ‘a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the participation of LFI in acts of violence near high schools’.