High school student with one hand amputated in Lens: the prosecution judges the grenade firing “compliant”

The firing of a police grenade which seriously injured a 15-year-old high school student on Monday in Lens (Pas-de-Calais), whose hand had to be amputated, was done “in accordance with the operating procedure” prescribed by the regulations, the prosecution estimated on Friday. Hearing on Thursday, the teenager's mother "filed a complaint for the injuries suffered by her son", also indicated in a press release the Béthune prosecutor, Étienne Thieffry. Contacted on Friday by AFP, the plaintiff's lawyer did not wish to comment to the press.

The teenager, whose left hand was torn off by the explosion of a stun grenade, is “still hospitalized” and “will be heard by investigators as soon as the medical profession authorizes it,” explained Mr. Thieffry. According to the first elements of the investigation entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the CRS “who launched this grenade and for which he is authorized acted on the orders of the command authority and carried out this firing in accordance with the operating mode recommended by the training documentation”, reported the prosecutor. “There is no video available to investigators allowing them to view the explosion of the grenade,” lamented Étienne Thieffry, while the investigation is also seeking to establish whether the high school student picked up the grenade or if it landed on him.

If they do not have an image of this precise moment, "all the testimonies (...) with the exception of a single one converge on the fact that the grenade was fired at a long distance (80 meters) and that it landed on the ground before several demonstrators approached it and one of them grabbed it until it exploded", however underlined the prosecutor. The CRS intervened in front of the Auguste-Béhal high school in Lens after coming under mortar fire and stone throwing, the magistrate recalled.

This case, among other cases of serious injuries to high school students attributed to the police, has aroused strong emotion and criticism on the left on the methods of maintaining order since the start of the high school student protest movement in mid-September.