The Ministry of the Interior of France has calculated that at least 504 people have been arrested and 48 police officers have been injured during the student protests this Thursday, in which about 80,000 young people and teachers have taken to the streets of the country to demand a deep reform of secondary education.
In an official note, the Interior warns that violence is increasing. The head of the department, Laurent Nuñez, "strongly condemns this violence and praises the work of the agents who systematically thwarted these acts" after denouncing an "increase in urban violence," although without incidents of extreme seriousness and always "on the margins of peaceful student protests, undermining their legitimate expression."
The Ministry estimates about 24,500 students gathered in the Place de la Bastille, in Paris, awaiting data from the unions, during an afternoon marked by the use of water cannons by riot police against the young people gathered at this emblematic point of the French capital, with no serious incidents reported so far.