Bombay Durpun - Smouldering bins, halted trams as French pupils protest

The movement in the lycees, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for their final three years of secondary education in France, has seen hundreds detained in recent days.

Since last week, pupils have staged protests outside schools over grievances ranging from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year's heatwaves.

The protests have spread across the country from the Paris suburbs, with the government accusing hard-left politicians of encouraging the unrest.

Riot police were deployed to confront the students, with the force launching internal probes after accusations of brutality against three pupils, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.

Some 340 demonstrations were underway in front of high schools mid-morning, with more than 160 establishments shut down as a result, police said.

University students joined in on Thursday, blocking physical access to around 30 campuses, including in Paris and the southern city of Marseille, a student union said.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu urged all ministers to postpone any travel nationwide, a source close to him said, so local authorities could "focus their resources on managing" the protests.

In the northwestern city of Nantes, firefighters had to intervene to put out a fire in the entrance of a high school "following a gathering marked by violence towards staff", the regional education board said.

Regional authorities reported "acts of violence near high schools", mainly in Nantes, blaming "violent individuals" who "join the students to carry out acts of vandalism".

- Summer 'unbearable' -

In the northeastern city of Strasbourg, authorities ordered trams to grind to a halt to "restrict the movements of rioters and demonstrators", the regional prefect said.

Raphael, a 17-year-old who did not give his surname for fear of reprisals, was among the protesters outside a school in Strasbourg, where some used barriers to obstruct the nearby tramway tracks.

"There are 35 of us per classroom. With 35C in summer, it's unbearable. There aren't enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms," Raphael said.

"The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There's zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors," he said.

Nearby, students took photos of themselves in front of burning rubbish bins, holding up the sign with their school's name ripped off the tram stop.

Most pupils did not take part in the clashes that followed, instead breaking out into a sprint down the avenue when the police fired tear gas.

The government has accused the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of encouraging the protests.

But LFI's candidate for the 2027 presidential election, Jean-Luc Melenchon, said on Wednesday that his party "called for non-violent methods of struggle".

burs-ah/as/sbk

V.Handa--BD