A teenager has lost a hand in a grenade explosion as the return of school protests in France sparked clashes with police.

The 15-year-old was seriously injured in the northern city of Lens on Monday. Unverified police reports said that he had picked up a stun grenade.

France had said it would close up to 500 schools as demonstrations over understaffed and rundown schools entered a third week. Critics have called for the authorities to temper their response to the protests amid claims of disproportionate police force being used against minors.

The youth, injured near the Auguste-Behal vocational high school, was taken to hospital in Lille. His life is not in danger, according to Pas-de-Calais prefect Francois-Xavier Lauch.

A police union source reported that the student appeared to have picked up a rubber sting-ball or ”de-encirclement” grenade, fired by riot police, in an attempt to throw it back before it exploded in his hand, the AFP news agency reported.

Public prosecutors said investigators have yet to establish whether the teenager picked up the device or whether it landed on him.

They have referred the case to police internal affairs, which is now engaged in six investigations into serious injuries that have occurred during the student protests.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray described the teenager’s injury as “humanly dramatic” but said he would not comment further until the circumstances were established. He said 190 students had been injured since the protests began.

Scrutiny

The Lens incident has added to scrutiny of police tactics during the demonstrations. Amnesty International France has criticised what it described as disproportionate police force against minors, saying it was alarmed by reports of students being hit with batons and subjected to tear gas and rubber-bullet fire known as LBDs.

The rights group said many of those taking part were minors under 18 and called on authorities to ensure policing methods were proportionate and compatible with France’s human rights obligations.

Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told CNews television on Monday that the priority was to “restore order”.

The Education Ministry said 589 schools had been disrupted on Monday, down from 735 on Friday, according to figures reported by Le Monde. Earlier estimates had suggested between 400 and 500 of France’s 3,700 high schools could be fully or partially closed.

Equal right

Nationwide demonstrations erupted at the end of last month at a high school in a Parisian suburb over teacher shortages, before spreading nationwide.

Geffray said on Sunday that 24 schools had been burned or ransacked during the protests, with 78 teaching staff injured.

Reporting from a high school in Paris, Global News Insight’s Natacha Butler said students had set up a barricade in front of the building’s entrance using dustbins and fences.

“We’ve been talking to many of the students who have come out here, and what they say is that they are here to have their demands heard by the government. They say they are fed up with teacher shortages and often don’t have teachers for subjects like maths and English,” she said.

“They also tell us that they’re here to demonstrate to show solidarity with other high school students who are in perhaps poorer areas in France with less adequate facilities or in France’s overseas territories. They say all young people should have an equal right to education,” Butler added.

Unrest and confrontations were reported in several cities on Monday. News channel BFMTV showed images of police and students clashing in Lille, tear gas being used in Toulouse in the southwest, and a fire being set alight as people tried to break into a school in central Paris.

Carole Zerbib, head of the vandalised Lycee Vauquelin in Paris’s 13th district, said a “very determined” group wearing hoods and masks attacked her school.

While police and firefighters quickly put out the fire and the school was evacuated, suspending classes, Zerbib said it was “very violent and happened very quickly”, adding that the attack lasted 15-20 minutes.

Since September 28, about 5,000 people, mostly teenagers, have been arrested across the country and dozens have been injured.

Teachers and members of the public have also been attacked, while property damage costs are estimated in the tens of millions of euros.

Student unions have called for national demonstrations on Tuesday.