French High School Students Clash with Police in Nationwide Protests

French high school students lit fires outside schools and faced off with police on Friday as a protest movement that has forced the closure of some 400 establishments showed no sign of abating.

The movement, which began last week in the Paris region and rapidly spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycees in their final years of schooling block access to buildings and clash with police.

The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions are inadequate including overheated classrooms, and that there are too many staff absences.

The government says the grievances are legitimate but has condemned what it has described as “urban violence”.