Demonstrators clash with riot police in France as education protests mount 

Police have fired tear gas at protesters blockading French high schools as tens of thousands of students and activists rally across France in a mounting wave of protests demanding government improvements to the education system.

Students in Marseille, Nantes and Lyon began demonstrations on Tuesday morning, with demonstrators holding aloft signs which read “they don’t really care about us” and “survive or study”.

In Strasbourg, Lyon and Rennes, the protests turned violent at times, with police firing tear gas and protesters lighting fires in the streets and hurling projectiles.

The protests started two weeks ago in Paris’s disadvantaged suburbs, lighting a blaze that has spread across the country. The government said that the movement has turned into urban violence and has deployed riot police to some rallies.

On Monday, a 15-year-old’s hand was blown off during clashes between high-schoolers and the police in northern France. The government said that around 200 to 250 protesters had thrown objects at the police.

A French newspaper, La Voix du Nord said that the teenager lost his hand and part of his arm after he picked a police grenade during the protest.

Nearly 2,000 high schools have been blockaded or closed for the day, according to the High School Students Union.

“When the answer is violence, it means democracy is no longer working,” said Hugo Vetzel, a recent high school graduate in Strasbourg preparing to attend France’s top universities. “There is such a gap between the elites and us.”

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has ordered ministers to address the students’ demands, including replacing underskilled teachers, making lunch breaks longer and changing the length of the school day.

Lecornu also said that the governments will look into repairing old campuses, as he demanded ministers send in proposals by the end of October.

France’s Ministry of Interior said that it has arrested 6,100 people since the beginning of the protests, the majority of them under the age of eighteen. The Ministry of Justice announced that over 1,800 will be prosecuted, including 1,483 minors.

During the protests, at least 215 teenagers have been wounded along with 715 police officers, according to Lecornu.