French Student, 15, Loses Hand in Police Grenade Incident During Protest

The protests concern conditions in French schools. CNN Brasil reported that students were demonstrating against inadequate facilities and staffing shortages.

The demonstrations have reached hundreds of schools nationwide, according to The Local. Times of India reported widespread school closures and clashes as protests over teacher shortages intensified.

On Monday, October 5, unrest near a school in Lens brought student protesters into confrontation with riot police, the BBC reported.

A 15-year-old student lost a hand in a grenade explosion. CNN Brasil reported that the grenade had been fired by police, while Franceinfo identified the teenager as a student in seconde at Auguste-Béhal vocational secondary school in Lens, in Pas-de-Calais.

The accounts differ in how firmly they describe what happened immediately before the explosion. Times of India said the student had handled a police stun grenade. Telegraaf reported that he was believed to have picked up a grenade fired by police.

An IGPN investigation has opened, according to Franceinfo. The injury comes while demonstrations for better teaching conditions continue across France, The Local reported.

The supplied reports do not give a further medical update or findings from the investigation. They establish the severity of the injury, but leave the precise sequence surrounding the explosion unresolved.

The pending IGPN investigation is the next concrete step. Its findings could clarify the circumstances of the grenade's use and the teenager's contact with it, details that remain uncertain across the accounts reported by Franceinfo, Times of India and Telegraaf.