Authorities are investigating the serious injury of a 15-year-old after a grenade exploded outside a school in Lens.
France’s education minister, Édouard Geffray, said about 190 students had been injured since high-school protests began in late September, Le Monde reported. Demonstrations and school blockades have spread across the country.
Authorities have not established whether the student picked up the munition or whether it landed near him. Le Monde reported that the grenade may have been a GM2L model used by French security forces, but the type of device and the sequence of events remain subject to investigation.
The protests began on September 21, when students blockaded Saint-Exupéry High School in a Paris suburb. They have raised concerns about teacher shortages and the lack of school social workers and psychologists. In a separate incident on September 28, a 14-year-old in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône suffered facial injuries after being hit by a tear-gas grenade fired from a Cougar launcher.