Live: France summons Iran ambassador over 'disinformation campaign' on student protests

France summoned Iran's ambassador on Wednesday over what it described as a "disinformation campaign" nationwide protests by high-school students. French riot police earlier used batons and tear gas to drive demonstrators from the Boulevard Saint-Germain in the heart of Paris after students set up a street barricade. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.

Student unions call for meeting with PM, lament lack of 'concrete measures'

Unions representing high-school pupils and university students are demanding a meeting with the prime minister, lamenting the absence of any "concrete measures" at this stage.

France summons Iran ambassador over 'disinformation campaign' on student protests

France summons Iran ambassador over 'disinformation campaign' on student protests

France has summoned Iran's ambassador over what foreign ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux described as an Iranian disinformation campaign targeting France's high-school student protest movement.

The envoy was told of the "absolutely unacceptable" nature of false content disseminated online by official Iranian foreign ministry accounts, Confavreux said in a statement, adding that Tehran's October 6 summons of the French ambassador was baseless.

"These undignified provocations must cease," he said.

Iran on Tuesday summoned France's envoy in Tehran over the ongoing student protests, accusing Paris of the "violent treatment" of demonstrators and of extensive human rights violations, according to Iranian state media.

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From the mass demonstrations of May 1968 to the 2006 youth protests against the "Beginning Workers Contract", FRANCE 24 looks back on how major French student and youth movements have pressured leaders and transformed national politics.

High schooler accused of assaulting teacher to face juvenile court in Marseilles

A 16-year-old high schooler will appear before the Marseilles juvenile court in February after having been accused of striking and splashing a teacher in the face with petrol Friday on the edges of student protest in La Ciotat, the public prosecutor’s office said.

📽 French parents join school protests to support and protect their children

Among the student demonstrators protesting across the country were parents who came to march alongside their children to support their cause – and, for some, to ensure their children could protest safely amid spreading accusations of police brutality.

'Attempted murder' investigation opened into police who held student's head underwater during arrest

An investigation for attempted murder has been opened after a police officer was filmed apparently holding a high-schooler’s head underwater in a stream on the edges of a student demonstration in the city of Belfort near the French-Swiss border, the Vesoul public prosecutor’s office said.

The student’s lawyer, Arié Alimi, has accused the head of the region’s police intelligence of trying to drown the 17-year-old Bulgarian national while detaining him after having allegedly identified him as having thrown projectiles at police and set bin fires.

The investigation will be undertaken by the national police oversight body.

Student protests spread beyond France's borders

France's student demonstrations have begun to spread to other parts of Europe, where national budgets have been under pressure ​as governments respond to successive cost-of-living and energy crises

Police have arrested at least 107 people in connection with student protests in the Belgian city of Liège in the French-speaking Wallonia region this month, the Belga news agency reported. Teachers are also on strike.

A demonstrator holds a placard reading: "Youth standing up, Glatigny on her knees", referencing Education Minister Valérie Glatigny, as high school students take part in a spontaneous street protest against education reforms introduced by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation government and an increase in student fees, in Liège, Belgium. Photo; Stéphane Lecocq, Reuters

📷 In Pictures: Riot police crack down on students barricading Boulevard Saint-Germain

Police officers spray students with pepper spray near Sciences Po university in Paris.

Riot police charge students on Boulevard Saint-Germain.

Riot police armed with batons face off against student protesters.

Riot police spray students with tear gas.

Photos: Thibault Camus, AP

French PM says high school students 'must be heard'

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called for dialogue with protesting high school students after nationwide demonstrations brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets.

"The voice of high school students is precious and must be heard," Lecornu said in a on X, adding it would contribute to "a concrete action plan".

Lecornu said a half-day of class time would be set aside in schools Wednesday to give students and staff the opportunity to voice their issues.

But student union leader Ryad Rani told local press that the effort was "yet another attempt to muzzle the debate" and to gain time.

Nicolas Bonnet, the union representative for school principals, was also dismissive of the gesture.

"To get out of this crisis, we will need something more than simple consultation periods," he told broadcaster franceinfo.

Lawyers representing detained teenagers say they have 'terrorised' by police

Several lawyers representing teenagers taken into police custody during the student protest movement say they have faced physical violence and insults.

Ainoha Pascual, a lawyer representing three minors in Paris, said they had been "terrorised".

"A very large majority arrive in custody injured", having taken baton blows or being dragged on the ground, she added.

Prisca Ancion with the Collective for Judicial Action said that every single high schooler arrested reported experiencing "an insult, a slap, having their head held down on the ground, chokeholds".

Riot police hit demonstrators with batons and tear gas at barricade in central Paris

French riot police used batons and tear gas to try to drive student protesters from the streets after demonstrators set up a barricade across Paris's Boulevard Saint-Germain outside Sciences Po university, video shared on social media by freelance journalist Luc Auffret showed.

📷 In Pictures: Police clash with demonstrators at protest outside Sciences Po

French riot police and gendarmes spray students with tear gas near a barricade on the Boulevard Saint-Germain during a protest outside Sciences Po university in Paris.

Riot police drive back a human chain of student protesters.

French riot police restrain a student protesting on the Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris.

Photos: Sarah Meyssonnier, Reuters

📽 'It certainly hasn't taken the wind out of this movement's sails: How are students responding to the stun grenade ban?

FRANCE 24's Antonia Kerrigan reports from the Lycée Henri Wallon in Aubervilliers north of Paris on how student demonstrators are responding to the French government's efforts to calm the protests.

Teenage boy has hand seriously injured in northern city of Strasbourg

A 16-year-old boy’s hand was seriously injured in front of the Lycée Couffignal high school in the northern city of Strasbourg, the regional prefecture said.

A police source alleged that the boy had been injured while setting off a firework launcher.

Five education unions call for strikes and demonstrations Thursday

Five French education unions including the SNES-FSU, the CGT, FO and Sud have called for a day of strikes and demonstrations Thursday to support the high school student protest movement.

“Our five organisations will be supporting Thursday’s protests,” Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the leading secondary school teachers' union the SNES-FSU, said at a press conference.

France suspends police use of stun grenades at student protests

Classes disrupted at 528 high schools, French government says

French PM to speak Wednesday on school protests

Teenage boy has hand seriously injured in northern city of Strasbourg

France summons Iran ambassador over 'disinformation campaign' on student protests

Classes disrupted at 528 high schools, French government says

Eighty-six percent of high schools had opened their doors as of Wednesday morning, provisional figures from the Education Ministry showed.

But classes at 528 high schools had been totally or partially suspended, the ministry said, adding that this was a decrease of 41 percent down from Tuesday's disruptions.

📷 In Pictures: Students stage sit-in at Paris's Sciences Po university

Students staging a sit-in at Paris's Sciences Po university hold a sign that reads, "Macron, you're done for; the youth are in the streets".

French riot police armed with tear gas grenade launchers form a line opposite the demonstrating students.

Students bear signs reading, "Police Kill", Sciences Po Fighting Against Precarity", "Sciences Po Complicit".

A barricade with French and Palestinian flags blocks the entrance of Sciences Po university.

Photos: Sarah Meyssonnier, Reuters

On the ground at France's growing student protest movement

Organisers estimated that some 450,000 people demonstrated across France in support of the country's growing student protest movement on Tuesday – tens of thousands of them in Paris.

Read our report from the barricades and demonstrations that swept the capital.

Yesterday's key developments:

Hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, union workers and parents joined nationwide demonstrations protesting lack of national funding. The Interior Ministry put the number of demonstrators at 250,000, while organisers estimated that almost twice as many people had joined the protests.

Police arrested 488 people during the demonstrations, and the Interior Ministry said 43 members of law enforcement had been injured.

A total of 891 high schools out of the 3,700 across saw their lessons “suspended, either completely or partially, for various reasons”. Around 40 percent of public higher education institutions were also disrupted on Tuesday, the French higher education ministry said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)