Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornudescribed the demonstrations as the most violent in decades.
Fourteen-year-old Eden suffered a broken jaw and multiple smashed teeth when he was struck by a tear gas canister directed towards him at close range by a police officer last week during student protests in France, his parents and family lawyer said.
The teenager had been sitting on a wall looking at his phone metres away from the protest in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, the lawyer said. An officer approached him and struck him with a baton, prompting Eden to respond with a kick, according to the local prosecutor. A second officer then fired a tear gas grenade with a Cougar launcher, hitting him in the face.
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“(The officer) shot him in the mouth and left him lying on the ground, without even calling the emergency services,” said lawyer Elsa Marcel. The family, who asked for Eden’s second name to be withheld to protect their privacy, has filed a complaint for attempted murder, she said.
A police spokesperson said they do not comment on ongoing investigations. According to the prosecutor’s office, the police officer said that he was seeking to protect himself and his colleagues after the student confronted police. The officer was placed under formal investigation on charges of assault by a public official resulting in permanent disability or disfigurement on this Tuesday, eight days after the incident.
The case is one of 24 under investigation by the IGPN internal police watchdog linked to the policing of a more-than-two-week-long wave of student unrest over conditions in schools. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has described the demonstrations as the most violent in decades.
Depuis plusieurs jours, l’ultra-violence a frappé à la porte de nos lycées. Des élèves, des personnels éducatifs, des policiers et des gendarmes ont été blessés. Ces violences doivent être condamnées sans condition.
Beaucoup de fausses informations ont circulé sur l’action des…
— Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) October 6, 2026
The police response has renewed calls for the withdrawal of the use of rubber bullets and grenade launchers, which are not used by police in many other European countries and have been repeatedly criticised in recent years by rights groups, including Amnesty International and UN human rights experts, as dangerous and disproportionate.
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It has also sparked anger among the public and fanned support for a protest movement that is the latest manifestation of deep-seated discontent with President Emmanuel Macron’s government ahead of a 2027 election.
Via interviews and reviews of legal documents, Reuters has documented 28 cases of injuries suffered due to police force, of which 15 are among those under investigation by the IGPN. They involve the use of rubber bullets, stun grenades, tear gas, batons and charges on horseback.
In two cases, a person’s eye has been lost or injured due to rubber bullets. In another, a 15-year-old in Lens had his hand blown off — likely by a stun grenade, according to interior minister Laurent Nunez, who paused the use of stun grenades pending an investigation into the case.
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Nunez said on Wednesday in a radio interview that about 200 students had been injured, but that it was very rarely the result of police action. “Our primary role is, of course, to protect high school students,” he said.
Authorities said that 700 police officers have also been injured, schools have been burned or ransacked, and teachers and members of the public have been attacked. The police have arrested 6,877 people, mostly minors.
