Student protests in France are escalating: hundreds of high schools are blocked. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has convened a crisis unit / A high school in Nantes was set on fire during the demonstrations

Student protests in France escalated on Thursday, when a high school in Nantes was set on fire during the demonstrations. The flames spread across the facade of Mandela High School, and the authorities intervened in the area.

The mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, maintains that the fire at Nelson Mandela High School was not caused by students, but by anarchist groups that had infiltrated the demonstrators in order to create chaos and destruction. The exact circumstances of the incident remain to be established.

Deputy headmistress Gaëlle Cordier told AFP that it was an “arson attack,” the cause of which has not been determined.

Incidents were also reported in other regions of France. Approximately 400 high schools, out of a total of 3,700 nationwide, were affected by Thursday’s protests.

In this context, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis cell today at 13:00 (local time) at the Ministry of the Interior.

Students joined the blockades of high schools on Thursday, October 1, demanding the replacement of teachers and increased resources.

The demonstrations began around September 21 in high schools in the Paris region and subsequently spread to nearly all regions of the country, including Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nice, Strasbourg, and Marseille.

The Minister of the Interior announced that 625 people had been detained in recent days, while nearly 120 had been injured. Among the injured are students and school staff members.