A 17-year-old French girl has lost the vision in her left eye after being hit in the face by a tear gas cartridge in Mulhouse, in the Alsace region. The projectile was fired by police officers deployed during the protests held this weekend in France against the poor state of public education, the high cost of living, and the police violence recorded in recent weeks.
The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) has taken over the investigation into what happened after the serious eye injury suffered by the minor, which has resulted in "the permanent loss of the left eye," according to the prosecutor of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) in a statement released by the news portal franceinfo.
The incident occurred on Saturday during the march called in Mulhouse to denounce the situation of public education and the rising cost of living, in line with the protests held in dozens of French cities. After the impact of the cartridge, the teenager was attended to at the scene by firefighters and subsequently evacuated to the hospital, according to the account from the Prosecutor's Office.
The investigations, led by the Prosecutor's Office, are now trying to "determine the exact development of the events that caused this serious injury," states the official note, which emphasizes that the inquiries will be "complex, given the large number of people present and the extremely difficult nature of the law enforcement operations that were carried out."
The concentration took place on Saturday near the Mulhouse train station and, according to the Prosecutor's Office, gathered around a thousand attendees. Of them, "a group of 400" headed "towards the station to try to break into the building," detailed the prosecutor, who indicated that law enforcement resorted to the use of tear gas to "protect travelers" and curb the "attempt to loot several shops," while responding to the "launching of fireworks."
This is the third action of the General Inspectorate of the National Police recorded that Saturday, after the amputation of a protester's hand in Saint-Étienne and the serious head injury suffered by another protester in Paris.