What we know after a 15-year-old boy had his hand torn off by a grenade in Lens on Monday, on the sidelines of a demonstration in front of a high school

Since the start of the high school students' protest movement, the General Inspectorate of the National Police has been seized of several investigations, after young people were seriously injured during clashes with the police. Among the facts that "the police" must clarify: the circumstances in which a 15-year-old student had his hand torn off, Monday October 5, in Lens (Pas-de-Calais).

The Minister of Education, Edouard Geffray, deplored a “humanly dramatic” situation. “It’s obviously a tragedy, we don’t have to lose our hand in a demonstration,” declared the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, Tuesday on France Inter. “There is no demonstration that should produce such a terrible tragedy. None,” said Xavier Bertrand, LR president of the Hauts-de-France region, on ICI Nord, Tuesday morning.

Attended second year at the city's Auguste-Béhal vocational high school, the teenager was hospitalized in Lille and "his days are not in danger", detailed Monday afternoon the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, François-Xavier Lauch.

The events took place Monday morning "around 10:30 a.m.", near the Auguste-Béhal vocational high school, in Lens, detailed the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, François-Xavier Lauch. There was a “group of 200-250 high school students who threw stones, fireworks and mortars at the police officers in the district,” he described, adding that a CRS company had been deployed in front of the high school to maintain order.

“An intervention company from Pas-de-Calais was attacked in an extremely virulent manner”, with “throws of projectiles” and “at least one Molotov cocktail thrown”, described for his part the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, questioned on Tuesday about the unfolding of the events. “There were the regulatory summons,” he further clarified, recognizing that it was “obviously” a “drama”. “I have a thought for this young person, his family, his comrades (…), we do not have to lose our hand in a demonstration”, added the minister, recalling that “an investigation will tell[it] in what conditions the facts took place”.

At the microphone of ICI Nord, high school students declared that the events had occurred during a crowd movement.

The General Inspectorate of the National Police was contacted on Monday for "crime of violence resulting in mutilation, permanent disability," "so that all light can be shed on the chronology and relationship of the facts", announced the Béthune prosecutor, Etienne Thieffry, at a press conference.

“As I speak to you, I am not able to answer you whether this teenager had formally recovered a grenade which exploded in his hand, or whether the grenade would have landed on him,” added the magistrate. “I am not able to confirm or deny the use of one grenade rather than another,” he continued, when questioned later in the evening.

At the microphone of ICI Nord, a high school student who was on the scene assured for her part that the victim had "received something towards his hand and it exploded. I saw his hand explode", she continued. “He didn’t pick it up [the grenade], he received it on his hand,” she insisted.

“The investigations are necessarily complex to reconstruct the relationship of the facts”, justified Etienne Thieffry. The public prosecutor cited in particular the use of video protection and pedestrian cameras, videos posted on social networks, the hearings of the victim "when their condition allows" as well as the police officers present at the time of the facts, witnesses or even the transcription of the exchanges on police radios.

It will also be a matter of identifying the grenades used and "verifying their use in accordance with doctrine and regulations", further underlined Etienne Thieffry. The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, declared on Tuesday that the teenager would have been injured by "a stun grenade", after a police union source initially mentioned to AFP a stun grenade.

The victim support association France Victimes 62 was requested to support the victim and her family, the Béthune prosecutor announced on Monday. A medical-psychological emergency unit has also been activated to support students and staff working in the school.

The high school sent a press release to students and parents on Monday, reports ICI Nord, which adds that the establishment has switched to distance learning. “For the moment it is still shock, dismay, anger” which dominate, a high school teacher told AFP, holding back tears. “He’s a kid” in second pro, “meaning that his professional future is going to be complicated” after losing the use of one hand, she stressed, holding back tears.

Met on Tuesday by franceinfo in front of the high school, a final year student, Iliès, also expressed his concern: "We never know what could happen to us now. We could eat a stray bullet, that's scary. Frankly, we have to worry." Mélina, 16, explained to AFP that she had witnessed the events of the day before. She said she was “afraid” of the police “who are everywhere” while CRS vans are deployed near several schools in the city. Upset, she assured that she wanted to “continue” to demonstrate “but above all be careful”.

From Monday, political reactions multiplied, particularly on the left, to denounce, in the light of this tragedy, the policy of maintaining order. “According to the elected representatives of the city that I was able to contact, this young person was not on the front line,” reacted on Facebook the boss of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier. Elected from the department, she called for “reforming our high schools but also the doctrine of ‘maintaining order’”. “We do not maintain order by mutilating our youth,” said Fabien Roussel, head of the Communist Party.

The president of the socialist deputies, Boris Vallaud, for his part requested the hearing of Laurent Nuñez before the law committee of the National Assembly and announced that his group would table a bill so that, in the face of demonstrations involving minors, the police could no longer use mutilating weapons or "brutal practices". “We will table a bill so that when it comes to high school demonstrations, with a majority of minors (...), there is no use of de-encirclement grenades, LBDs or brutal practices such as strangulation,” explained the Landes MP on RMC.

Invited Tuesday morning on the show “Les 4 Vérités” on France 2, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon assured that “the way the police intervened [was] proportionate to the acts they observed on the ground.” The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, assured that the interventions of the police since the start of the high school movement were carried out in "the greatest proportionality".

“I assume to say that when there is unrest, there must be an intervention”, underlined the minister on France Inter. “This intervention is carried out in the greatest proportionality, it is the rule, it is the legal framework for the use of intermediate weapons by the police,” he recalled, assuring that, in front of an audience of high school students, the interventions “[were] made in an even more proportional manner, with even more tact”.