The suspension concerns student demonstrations at high schools and represents a change in the way public order is managed during the nationwide student movement. Sources agree that the use of this type of device has been halted, but do not specify the duration or the conditions for a possible reinstatement.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, according to the Guardian, citing an interview he gave to RTL, said he had ordered a temporary halt in the context of the high-school student movement, pending clarification of what happened. The Guardian also reported that a 15-year-old protester reportedly lost a hand during a protest in Lens, in northern France, on October 5.
The decision came after days of demonstrations marked, according to several reports, by clashes that were at times violent and by accusations of brutality or disproportionate use of force by police. The sources confirm the existence and intensification of these accusations, but do not independently establish that the use of force was disproportionate.
The Guardian and France 24 reported that hundreds of people were reportedly injured in the protests. The available material, however, does not allow the total or the methodology used to calculate it to be independently verified.
It also remains unclear exactly what type of grenade was involved and what the precise circumstances of the boy’s injury were. The available descriptions link the incident to the context of the protest, but do not fully reconstruct how it occurred.
On the institutional front, Al Jazeera and Deutsche Welle reported that Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was expected to address the nation later on October 7. France 24 also reported an emergency meeting convened by President Emmanuel Macron with Lecornu and other ministers.
Euronews reported that more than 6,500 people had reportedly been arrested since the movement began, the majority of them minors. However, this figure is attributed to a single source and is not independently corroborated by the material provided.