15-year-old arrested for using spray as a flamethrower during protests in France

A 15-year-old teenager, a student at the Colbert high school in Marseille, has been arrested for using spray as a flamethrower against a woman's face during student protests in France. The television network BFMTV captured the attack last Thursday in a video that went viral on the networks and which has been used as evidence.

The student, who had no criminal record, has acknowledged the facts and has been accused of aggravated violence with a weapon and hidden face. In his first court appearance he expressed his "deep regret." The victim, a 40-year-old woman, filed a complaint against him although she has not suffered serious physical harm.

The use of sprays as flamethrowers, flares and fireworks mortars by protesters has raised alarms due to the violence of the clashes recorded in dozens of French cities, as has the launching of tear gas grenades and the firing of rubber bullets with LBD-type weapons by the Police.

According to Education Minister Edouard Geffray, the clashes, which resulted in more than 5,000 arrests (85% of them minors), have caused more than 500 injuries of varying degrees, including police officers (305), students (170) and teaching staff (65).

A total of 24 institutes registered fires and looting, more than a hundred suffered damage and some 500 will remain closed on Monday for security reasons and in response to the announcement of a new wave of protests against the degradation of public education that will culminate on Tuesday with demonstrations called by unions in several French cities. The material damage is estimated at more than 35 million euros and the Government will promote a law starting Monday to pass the bill to parents.

Interior Minister Laurent Núñez meanwhile denied that the intervention of law enforcement forces had been "disproportionate." "The Police do not repress young people, but rather protect them," declared Núñez. "The gendarmes intervene firmly and without delay to stop the violence and abuses committed by the rioters, and all this done with proportionality."

Last Friday, a police officer was violently hit in the head and hospitalized after losing consciousness in Belfort, near the Swiss border. In La Ciotat, on the Côte d'Azur, a 16-year-old teenager was arrested on charges of hitting and dousing a teacher with gasoline.

In Saint-Ouen, north of Paris, the family of a 14-year-old boy identified as Eden filed a complaint against the Police for injuries suffered when he was hit with tear gas. In Argenteuil, a 16-year-old teenager suffered an eye injury from the impact of a shot with LBD weapons used by the police and questioned by human rights groups such as Amnesty International.