France suspends stun grenades after teenager loses hand in protest

France has hit pause on a controversial policing tactic after a 15-year-old’s hand was blown off during student protests this week. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced the suspension of stun grenades until authorities can clarify exactly what happened in the northern city of Lens on Monday.

The incident has reignited tensions between police and demonstrators, with conflicting accounts emerging about whether the teenager picked up an already-detonated grenade or was struck directly by one fired by officers. What’s clear is that hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday demanding better school conditions, and the government now faces mounting pressure over how security forces are responding.

The Escalating Crisis

These aren’t isolated incidents. A 14-year-old lost several teeth and suffered a fractured jaw after being hit with a tear gas grenade last week, and prosecutors have opened an investigation into attempted murder after a 17-year-old claimed an officer held his head underwater during arrest near Belfort. The pattern suggests a troubling disconnect between the scale of police response and the nature of the protests themselves.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray reported that 24 schools were so badly damaged they’ll remain closed for weeks, affecting 30,000 pupils. Over 500 schools shut fully or partially on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the interior ministry counted 488 arrests and 43 injured officers, while claiming 215 students and 85 staff have been hurt since demonstrations began in mid-September.

Nuñez told French radio RTL that the police watchdog IGPN has opened 18 investigations to determine whether officers used proportionate force. The government’s emergency response included President Emmanuel Macron holding a crisis meeting with key ministers on Tuesday night, underscoring just how seriously the situation has escalated.

Police Push Back

Not everyone supports the stun grenade suspension. Jean-Paul Nascimento, national secretary of policing union UNSA, dismissed the decision as one based “on emotion” rather than sound security policy. He warned that removing the weapon could actually increase injuries by forcing police into closer physical confrontations with increasingly violent crowds.

There’s a real tension here between legitimate concerns about excessive force and the genuine security challenges police face. The prefect in Lens described police being confronted by 200-250 students throwing stones and fireworks. That’s a genuine crowd control problem, but so is a teenager losing a hand.

Political Ammunition

The crisis has become a political football ahead of April’s presidential election. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu accused the radical-left France Unbowed party of trying to “sow chaos,” while the hard-right National Rally’s Marine Le Pen claimed Macron was “always on the side of attacking the police.” LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon observed pointedly that it took “several children being maimed for life” before the government would reconsider its tactics.

Student unions estimate 450,000 people protested Tuesday, far exceeding government figures of 250,000. A fourth round of protests is planned for Thursday. The discrepancy in crowd estimates itself tells a story about the credibility gap between authorities and demonstrators, which has only widened following incidents like the one in Lens.

What Comes Next

Prime Minister Lecornu addressed the nation Wednesday evening as schools remained shuttered and tensions simmered. The government now faces a delicate balancing act: how to maintain order during mass protests without resorting to tactics that leave teenagers permanently disabled. The suspension of stun grenades is a start, but it doesn’t resolve the deeper question of whether police tactics have been proportionate to what remains fundamentally a student movement about educational conditions.

High school unions are calling on officers to show restraint. Head of the USL union Ryad Rani urged: “Calm your police officers down and call for restraint.” Whether that plea will be heard amid the political pressure and genuine security concerns remains uncertain.

The coming days will reveal whether suspending one weapon actually defuses a crisis that has paralyzed schools and split the nation over how to police dissent.

Source: BBC