LECORNU DEFENDS POLICE

PARIS, OCTOBER 6 /SRNA/ - French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said 215 students had been injured during high school protests across France but rejected accusations of police brutality, despite incidents in which one boy lost a hand to an explosive device and another lost an eye.

Lecornu said most students had been injured as a result of attacks or, to a lesser extent, accidents, Le Figaro reported.

"What triggers a police response is the emergence of urban violence. Can accidents happen? The answer is yes," Lecornu told Parliament.

He added that 85 education workers and 715 gendarmes and police officers had also been injured.

Lecornu said the number of injured education workers was "the highest in several decades in the national education system."

He stressed that the "normalization" of violence was unacceptable, noting that 715 gendarmes and police officers had been injured during the protests, many of them subjected to insults and intimidation.

The prime minister announced that classes at high schools would be suspended until the end of the week to allow for a period of "internal democracy" with students, who continued protesting today over overcrowded classrooms and demands for additional school funding.

As Lecornu addressed parliament, protesters from several trade unions and education organizations gathered in the streets alongside high school and university students.

According to the French Interior Ministry, around 86,000 people took part in marches outside Paris.

Protesters are demanding better funding and working conditions in high schools.

A 15-year-old boy lost a hand yesterday in northern France when a stun grenade exploded. The prosecutor said it could not yet be established with certainty whether the boy had picked up the device or had been struck by it.

In Tours, a 16-year-old lost an eye after being struck by a projectile that prosecutors said may have been fired from a police weapon.