About 400 French schools to stay closed on Friday as student protests turn violent
France's education minister says just over 400 schools and other establishments will stay closed on Friday after student blockades escalated into arson, petrol attacks and clashes with police.
“There are a little over 400 schools and other educational establishments that I know of that will be closed,” Education Minister Édouard Geffray told broadcaster France 2 late on Thursday, as protests over education grievances escalated into violence, Reuters reported.
The blockades began in the Créteil academy on 21 September over missing teachers, classes of 32 to 35 pupils, dilapidated buildings and Parcoursup stress, Wikipedia’s protest page reports.
On Wednesday 30 September, 625 people were detained and 83 police officers and gendarmes were injured, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said; the Education Ministry put injuries among pupils and staff at 119 since the unrest began, Times Now reported. The Interior Ministry figure for Thursday was 1,949 arrests, Wikipedia’s ministry citation reports.
On Thursday, attackers surrounded a fire truck at Saint-Exupéry high school in Marseille, forced the firefighters to flee and set it alight, police said. The headteacher of Victor Hugo high school in Marseille was doused with petrol and injured, the prosecutor’s office said. A fire at Nelson Mandela high school in Nantes was brought under control with no injuries after the building was evacuated, fire crews said. A car was torched in Strasbourg and riot police clashed with youths in Toulouse, Reuters reported.
A source close to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told Reuters intelligence agencies told Thursday’s crisis meeting the movement had been initiated by hard-left politicians including La France Insoumise members; LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard denied the claim. Lecornu held an interministerial crisis meeting on Thursday, his office said.
Sources
- Reuters, “About 400 French schools closed as some student protests turn violent”, 2 October 2026: https://www.reuters.com/world/about-400-french-schools-closed-some-student-protests-turn-violent-2026-10-02/
- JPost (Reuters), “Teacher doused in petrol as students set fire to schools in French protests”, 1 October 2026: https://www.jpost.com:443/international/article-910333
- Times Now, “WATCH: France Student Protests Turn Violent As Schools Set Ablaze, Hundreds Arrested”, 1 October 2026: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/watch-france-student-protests-turn-violent-as-schools-set-ablaze-hundreds-arrested-article-156260197
- ABP Live / Deutsche Welle, “France School Protest Student High Turn Violent, Over 600 Detained As 83 Police Hurt”, 1 October 2026: https://news.abplive.com/news/india/france-school-protest-student-high-turn-violent-over-600-detained-as-83-police-hurt-1869212/amp
- Wikipedia, “2026 French lycée protests” (used only for cross-checking ministry casualty/arrest figures, attributed): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_French_lyc%C3%A9e_protests
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