A student signals their defiance after riot police fire teargas to break up a protest in the southern city of Bordeaux. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen A student signals their defiance after riot police fire teargas to break up a protest in the southern city of Bordeaux. Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images France Riot police fire teargas as 250,000 take part in schools protests across France Officers also carry out baton charges as students, staff and parents march in cities including Paris, Marseille and Lyon
Prefer the Guardian on Google Police have fired teargas at protesters as more than 250,000 pupils, teachers and parents demonstrated across France on the biggest day yet of a campaign for better high school conditions that has been marred by often violent clashes with police.
Read more The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff had been injured since the protests began more than a fortnight ago, calling the figures “the heaviest toll in decades paid by the school system”.
The country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called key ministers to the Élysée Palace for talks on Tuesday night, French media reported.
The interior ministry said 200,000 people had taken part in mainly peaceful marches in cities including Marseille, Nantes and Lyon on Tuesday, with 56,000 more joining the biggest demonstration in Paris . Organisers put the total at 450,000.
Most passed off without serious incident, but some – including in Paris – ended in sporadic vandalism and running skirmishes with riot police, with officers firing teargas and carrying out baton charges to disperse protesters.
Nearly 500 people were arrested on Tuesday, according to figures from the Interior Ministry reported by newspaper Liberation. The ministry also said 43 police officers were injured.
Trade unions and rights groups have accused the police of using unnecessary force against the young protesters in recent days, with Amnesty International saying French authorities should “put an end to the disproportionate police repression”.
View image in fullscreen Protesters marching in Marseille. Photograph: Sener Yilmaz Aslan/Getty Images But interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said the police response had been proportionate in “almost all cases” and that the protests had at times turned into riots, requiring police intervention.
At Tuesday’s demonstration in Paris, students held aloft smoke flares and placards with slogans including “under our text books, anger” – a nod to a celebrated “under the paving stones, the beach” slogan from the May 1968 student riots. Other slogans included “schools with no money = country with no future”.
One student, Anna, told reporters at the capital’s Place de la Nation: “Our demands are simple: better study conditions, enough teachers, decent school buildings. The authorities’ response has been catastrophic. There’s enough violence already.”
Tuesday’s marches came after two weeks of protests that began in the northern suburbs of Paris and have snowballed nationwide. Besides the injuries to protesters and staff, 715 police officers have been wounded in the clashes, Lecornu’s office said.
View image in fullscreen Protesters marching in Paris. Photograph: Sener Yilmaz Aslan/Getty Images Demonstrators have set dustbins on fire outside their schools, destroyed bus shelters and hurled projectiles at riot police, who have responded with batons, teargas…