Teenagers across France have suffered serious injuries during high school protests, as students demand better conditions and police respond with force.

The government reports 215 students and 715 police officers have sustained injuries since protests began late last month.

Police have deployed tear gas and other crowd control measures against what authorities call “urban violence”.

But unions, rights groups and many students accuse officers of using excessive force.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late Monday that police have launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started.

Police investigations underway

Four cases have drawn particular attention for the severity of the injuries involved.

A teenager (15) lost his hand on Monday at a protest in the northern town of Lens. A police union source said he picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot officers.

However, local prosecutor Etienne Thieffry said late Monday he could not immediately determine “whether this teenager had actually picked up a grenade that exploded in his hand, or whether the grenade had landed on him”.

Serious head and facial injuries

Mael (16) lost the use of his right eye after officers seriously injured him in the head on Wednesday during the blockade of Balzac High School in the central town of Tours.

His wounds are “compatible with the impact of a defensive bullet of the blast ball type”, local prosecutor Catherine Sorita-Minard said.

The family filed a legal complaint for “violence by a person with public authority”, her office said.

Mael’s family said in a statement that he had “absolutely no involvement, whether directly or indirectly, in any activist or political activity whatsoever”.

“He is simply a teenager who found himself caught up in the events,” they said.

Teen loses teeth in close-range shooting

On Monday last week in Saint-Ouen-L’Aumone, northwest of Paris, Eden (14) lost most of his teeth when a police officer appeared to fire a grenade at him at very close range.

“His jaw is sealed shut, he can no longer speak and he eats through a straw,” his mother told media on Monday, adding all his teeth were broken and “his lower teeth torn out”.

Widely shared video footage shows three helmeted riot police officers facing the high school student. One of them lands a first blow to the teenager, who responds with a kick, before a grenade launcher shot to the face sends him crashing to the ground.

Lawyer Elsa Marcel said the officer could not ignore that “his weapon could fatally strike a child when shot at point-blank range” at “a distance of 1.50 metres”.

The family was on Monday preparing to file a legal complaint for “attempted intentional homicide”.

Eye injury in capital suburb

In the capital’s northwestern suburb of Argenteuil, near two high schools, a blast ball injured a teenager (16) in the eye on Thursday.

The local prosecutor’s office said police were responding to two men around 20 metres away who had fired fireworks in their direction.

Two officers with defensive ball launchers used them, the office said, adding that “the description of the young man taken into care by the emergency services appeared to correspond to that of one of the two individuals who had been involved”.

Paul Vannier, a lawmaker from the hard-left France Unbowed party that has expressed support for the protests, said the teen remains in hospital.

“At this point the doctors are unable to say whether he will lose the use of his eye or not,” he said.

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