Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

A sudden excitement in the crowd at the Place de la République – then the chant goes up: "Mélenchon Président!"

It’s the veteran head of the France Unbowed (LFI) party Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

He is lionised by this young left-wing audience, and as he moves about people press round for a glimpse.

This is the man accused by the government of fomenting trouble for electoral ends.

Right now he is either second or third-placed in the presidential race, depending on the polls.

He is an outspoken champion of the students’ demands, which is why they love him.

"We're here to fight for our rights," says Alissa, a student in Marseille.

She tells the BBC News Channel that they are protesting alongside teachers from their school: "We just want better conditions. They never listen to us... and if we don't fight, nobody is going to fight for us."

"Most of us aren't violent," she says, adding that "police they don't even let us [protesters] walk" in the street, which "creates a lot of tension in the country, in the city".

Her friend Sacha adds that there are leaks in school ceilings and the "general the condition in which we work is very poor, so we can't really work a lot of time".

"We will keep doing this until good measures are taken," he says.

Image source, Reuters

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu says hundreds of police officers and students have been injured during recent the protests across France.

Speaking in the French parliament this afternoon, Lecornu says 215 students have been injured since the protests began, as have 85 school workers and 715 gendarmes and police officers.

He says it is the highest figure to affect workers in the education system in decades, condemning the "trivialisation" of violence that is "unacceptable".

"Burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings. Lynching a teacher does not help replace teachers," he says, adding it is a "lie" to suggest the government had ordered "police repression" against demonstrators.

Footage from PSG celebrations falsely linked to school protestspublished at 14:36 BST

14:36 BST

By Lucy Gilder and Sarah Jalali

BBC Verify has found several examples of viral videos on X claiming to show the recent protests which are actually from months, or even years, before the current unrest.

A clip showing crowds dancing and cheering by a fire in front of the Eiffel Tower has been shared repeatedly, including in one post captioned “France has fallen” which has been viewed six million times, external.

But reverse image searches of the footage shows it was first shared on 31 May. It actually shows celebrations by Paris Saint-Germain fans after winning the Champions League final.

Another video shows a man and woman sat outside a bar while a fire burns in the middle of the street. The accompanying post - viewed 2.7 million times , external- says "this video from France is probably the most terrifying...". But the footage actually depicts protests in Bordeaux in March 2023.

One post viewed nearly 500,000 times reads, external "the black uprising continues in France" and includes a video showing what appears to be a confrontation between police and protesters at a train station in Paris.

But simply clicking a link attached to the video leads you to a post with the same footage dated to December 2017.

Pierre-Antoine Denis
Reporting from Marseille

Image source, Reuters

As the first peaceful protest drew to a close around midday, we heard rumours within the heart of the protest that it would turn to "mode sauvage" ("wild mode", or "savage mode").

In essence, the protests are now unregulated, and hordes of people are just wandering around Marseille while police try to contain the movements.

We now hear and see different groups in different parts of town.

So far it's all been peaceful here in Marseille, but the city is heavily guarded with police around different potential flash points.

Image source, Reuters

These are some of the latest pictures coming to us from the French capital, where authorities are expecting between 20,000 to 40,000 people to protest.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

The union for secondary school students, which is one of the major organisers of the protest, says 2,000 high schools have shut across the country.

The Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL) also says it has "mobilised" all universities across the country.

The union's figures on school closures differ from those given by the education ministry - which earlier said that 891 schools have had classes suspended, either totally or partially.

Mark Lowen
Reporting from Marseille

Joanna is a university student, but went to high school in a Parisian suburb, where the student protests began.

Asked why she is taking part in demonstrations today, she tells me: "We are protesting for better conditions of learning for our students, high schoolers."

Joanna says there is a lack of teachers and lack of replacements for teachers who are sick, and therefore "we don't have enough teachers to learn".

On the conditions inside her high school, she recalls one incident where a roof fell on some students and says there were also "a lot of floods" and rats, while some students didn't eat because meals were too expensive.

Joanna describes the police response to protesters as "really violent and really aggressive", adding it is "really escalating".

"Police get violent and so people respond with violence."

She says high school pupils have been throwing objects on fire, but claims "if they don't do that they are not heard" and "students don't injure people they injure things".

Nick Beake
Reporting from Lille

In Lille, thousands of people - many of them teenagers - have arrived at Place de la République, which is supposed to be the end point of this protest march.

A brass band has just started up and is pumping music out across the street. There are dozens of police officers in riot gear at the corners of the square, some of them standing in front of the government building of the Lille Préfecture.

"Everyone hates the police" is the chant that one large group of children are joining in.

Along the route, some protesters told us how they feared officers would be violent towards them today.

When I later pointed out lots of teachers and emergency service workers have also been injured over the past week or so, the response is that only a tiny minority of those protesting have been violent.

There is chanting and clapping. A red haze of smoke has drifted across one of the entry points from which hundreds more students continue to arrive.

Some young people are dressed in black with their faces covered. It’s noisy and animated but there are no obvious signs there will be disorder.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The wave of student protests that has swept France continues. People are rallying for better conditions in schools - pointing to teacher shortages, overcrowding, and dilapidated buildings.

With France's largest union turning out today, the movement shows no sign of abating - here's what is happening.

• Today's demonstrations have been dubbed "Act Three" by the school movement, with parents, university students, and the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) - France's largest union - taking part
• Hundreds of schools have been fully or partially closed - although the figures being given vary. France's education ministry says almost 900 schools have suspended classes, while the national students' union reports that 2,000 secondary schools are closed
• While many are protesting peacefully, there has been disorder - including in Lyon, where barricades have been set on fire, and in Strasbourg, where there were clashes with police
• Human rights organisations have expressed "serious concern" about the "disproportionate police response" to the protesters

• "I am very scared for the future," one Parisian student tells the BBC. Another says that "we still feel like we are not being heard"

Madeleine Lake
Live reporter

Image source, Phoebe Nilor

In the Paris suburbs of Noisy-le-Grand, Phoebe Nilor has been protesting. She says life in school is "difficult" because of overcrowding and a lack of desks.

The 17-year-old has been livestreaming the protests on TikTok, and tells me she has been peacefully demonstrating.

"We peacefully demonstrated for our rights and to demand better working conditions, because we are in classes of 35 students, which is completely overcrowded. We have been fighting for so many things, and to this day, we still feel like we are not being heard."

She says the level of police violence during protests has been "really upsetting" and says she feels "disgusted" that the government is using "so much force" against young people.

While many demonstrations are said to be proceeding peacefully, the government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since they started.

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

From early this morning, 100 or more students from the Lycée Sophie-Germain in central Paris blockaded their building with wheelie bins and crowd-control barriers, and in a party atmosphere chanted slogans and songs targeting the government, the far-right and the police.

Afterwards they moved off to the Place de la République where a protest march is now getting under way - the students joined by delegations from trade-unions and left-wing political parties.

There is of course a big contingent of police stationed all around, ready to intervene in the event of vandalism or fire-raising.

On all sides there’s hope that this more structured form of protest – a march down an authorised route – will prove more easy to control than ad hoc outbreaks outside schools.

France's interior ministry estimates about 86,000 protesters have taken to the streets across France on Tuesday, not including the Paris region, Reuters reports.

The Paris protest is due to start now - at 14:00 local time (13:00 BST), according to organisers, with authorities expecting between 20,000 to 40,000 people to attend.

In Rennes, a city in north-western France, riot police can be seen using water cannon during clashes on the sidelines of a demonstration, in pictures from news agency AFP - while some people try to protect themselves with umbrellas.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The French police - like all forces - have various "non-lethal" crowd-control weapons at their disposal. These are often criticised by the left and human rights groups for being dangerous and unsuitable for use against teenagers.

The most controversial are the Grenade à Main de Désencerclement (GMD) and the Lanceur de Balles de Défense (LBD). The first in English means Anti-encirclement Hand Grenade, and the second Defence Ball Launcher.

GMDs - often called sting-balls in English - are thrown by police along the ground. They create a loud bang and send out small fragments of rubber.

LBDs - which used to be called Flashballs after an early trademark - fire rubber projectiles from a gun.

The boy who lost his hand in Lens on Monday was injured by a GMD. The investigation will determine whether he tried to pick it up or was hit by the grenade.

An LBD has been blamed for another serious injury - a boy who lost his eye in Tours last week. During the Gilet Jaune riots of 2018-2019, LBDs were blamed for a lot of facial injuries to protesters.

In addition French riot police fire tear gas canisters, which can cause trauma if they make contact with a human body.

The interior ministry says the weapons are only used as a proportionate response to events that risk getting out of control.

Protesters have been clashing with police riot officers in Lyon, a major city some 466km (290 miles) southeast of Paris, where officers can be seen in full tactical gear and using crowd-control weapons.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to march today across Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Lyon and Paris.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, AFP

The wave of protests started with 15 to 18-year-old lycéens and has now spread to their parents, university students and the biggest union, the CGT.

The main question is whether today's demos, culminating soon in the centre of Paris and dubbed "Act Three" in the school movement, will mark a climax. Once these protests have died down, will the government be able to say it has done enough to tackle the core demands?

With presidential elections only seven months away, Sébastien Lecornu's government may struggle to quell the unrest, because along with the demands to tackle under-funding in education there is a highly politicised mood and widespread shock at the level of violence.

More than 700 police officers have been hurt, and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has spoken of unprecedented "urban violence", particularly towards teachers and security forces. More than 6,000 people have been arrested, he says.

But 215 teenagers have also been injured, and on the left and among human rights groups there is talk of a "disproportionate" police response.

With hundreds of schools disrupted, it does not yet sound as if the lycéens are ready to stop.

There are 891 schools across France which have had their classes suspended, either totally or partially, amid the ongoing protests, multiple French outlets are reporting citing figures from the Education Ministry.

As a reminder, high school students' union the Union Syndicale Lycéenne claimed earlier today that 1,800 high schools and 90% of universities are currently blockaded or closed.

France's national human rights institution has published a statement calling on the government to strengthen dialogue with protesters.

The National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) expressed "serious concern" about the "disproportionate use of force and procedural abuses", insisting that the state's response to unrest should remain targeted and proportionate.

It has asked the government to adopt a de-escalation strategy and says the right of children to express their views freely must be guaranteed.

Nick Beake
Reporting from Lille

The focus of these protests in France has been secondary schools, but today buildings of Lille University are barricaded as students and lecturers join the cause of the teenagers.

There are parents here too. We’ve just spoke to Lea, Elodie, and Anne.

They say their kids are not yet of high school age but already they’re worried about the long school days they will soon face. A typical school day starts around 08:30, and some teachers we've spoken to say it can run to 18:00.

A march has just set off. Several hundred people are now passing through the streets.