Transport Suspended in Some French Cities as School Protests Continue

France

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting Thursday as students staged new protests against understaffing, onerous schedules and overheated classrooms, with public transport affected in several cities. More than 1,900 people, most of them students, have been detained and hundreds of police injured amid the increasingly violent protests, the interior ministry reported.

Modified: 01/10/2026 - 21:10

By FRANCE 24

Anti-riot police officers face protesting students outside Le Corbusier secondary school in Aubervilliers, northern Paris, on October 1, 2026.

Anti-riot police officers face protesting students outside Le Corbusier secondary school in Aubervilliers, northern Paris, on October 1, 2026. © Lou Benoist, AFP

French students set fire to bins and erected blockades outside schools in several cities, protesting against overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities.

Several school principals were injured, harassed or assaulted during blockades at high schools on Thursday, according to reports from regional education authorities, prefectures and union representatives.

Riot police have lined up against the students, and the force has launched internal probes after accusations of brutality against three pupils, said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.

Police have already detained hundreds of protesters at the lycées, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for their final three years of secondary education in France.

In ​the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, crowds of young people massed in front of a line of police. One student ​held up a sign that read: "Can we explain ourselves without being teargassed?"

The interior ministry said police and gendarmes had made 1,949 arrests on Thursday, while 305 officers had been injured. Nunez condemned what he described as "unbridled violence".

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting in the afternoon, asking his ministers to cancel their travel plans over the coming days due to the blockades led by high school students in order to let prefects handle the situation, his entourage reported.

The government said the demonstrations had become "urban violence" and cited the intelligence service to justify claims that it had been organised by the radical left.

Manuel Bompard, a leading figure in the left-wing France Unbowed party (LFI), quickly dismissed the claim, accusing the government of "sinking into conspiratorial thinking".

"LFI has always advocated non-violent demonstrations," LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard told BFM TV after a readout of the crisis meeting was shared with reporters.

"The government, by turning it into a political battle, has added fuel to the fire by insulting and repressing high school students," he added.

"This sense of frustration will not be dealt with through batons; it will be dealt with by showing ‌consideration for these young people," he said.

This latest wave of social unrest comes with tensions already running high over inflation, particularly soaring fuel prices – and just seven months away from France's presidential election, where opinion polls suggest far-right leader Marine Le Pen is the frontrunner.

A security source said there had been 900 blockades or related incidents across the country on Thursday.

More than 160 schools were shut down, and university students joined the protests in Paris, Marseille and other cities.

And the authorities in the Paris region said around 50 schools had been "the scene of violence, clashes and damage".

'It's unbearable'

Since last week, pupils have staged protests outside schools over a range of grievances. They range from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year's heatwaves.

The protests have spread across the country from the Paris suburbs.

University students also joined in Thursday, blocking access to around 30 campuses, a student union said.

Among reports of school staff being targeted was one incident in the southern port city of Marseille when a school principal and his deputy were inadvertently splashed with petrol as protesters were trying to fill containers.

In the northwestern city of Nantes, firefighters had to intervene to extinguish a fire in the entrance of a high school "following a gathering marked by violence towards staff", the regional education board said.

Authorities reported violence near high schools, mainly in Nantes, blaming "violent individuals" who "join the students to carry out acts of vandalism".

In the northeastern city of Strasbourg, trams were ordered to halt to "restrict the movements of rioters and demonstrators", the regional prefect said.

Raphael, a 17-year-old who did not give his surname for fear of reprisals, was among the protesters outside a school in Strasbourg, where some used barriers to obstruct the nearby tramway tracks.

"There are 35 of us per classroom. With 35°C in summer, it's unbearable. There aren't enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms," Raphael said.

"The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There's zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors," he said.

Nearby, students took photos of themselves in front of burning rubbish bins, holding up the sign with their school's name ripped off the tram stop.

Most pupils did not take part in any vandalism, instead breaking into a sprint down an avenue when the police fired tear gas.

In the southern city of Toulouse, hundreds of young people flooded the tram tracks, some toppling trash cans and starting fires, hurling projectiles or smashing bus shelters, AFP journalists said.

In the northern city of Lille, AFP reporters saw young people wearing black hoodies destroy the glass of a bus stop. Firefighters intervened to put out the flames on upturned dustbins set on fire.

The government has accused the left-wing LFI of encouraging the protests.

But LFI's candidate for the 2027 presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said on Wednesday that his party "called for non-violent methods of struggle".

In neighbouring Belgium, there were protests and damage at a handful of schools in the eastern city of Liège, police said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)