France is to close up to 500 schools on Monday after riots leave 24 'burned or ransacked' and 5,000 arrested

From the Newshound archive · first published 4 October 2026.

France's Education Minister Edouard Geffray announced that lessons will be "totally or partly suspended" in 400 to 500 high schools on Monday, as student protests over overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages continue to spread nationwide. A 15-year-old rioter was arrested this week after using a makeshift flamethrower to burn a woman's face, with the attack captured on video. Officers have made over 5,000 arrests since the movement erupted in mid-September, with 85 per cent of those detained being minors.

Twenty-four schools have been burned or ransacked since the protests began, with teachers reported to have been doused in petrol during the chaos.

President Emmanuel Macron's government faces a further test on Tuesday when the powerful CGT labour union is urging workers to join the demonstrations.

Protests began in the Paris region last month over poor conditions and staff shortages before spreading to suburbs and small towns across France.