15-Year-Old Arrested After Video Shows Woman Hit in Face With Improvised Flamethrower During French Protests

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in Marseille after disturbing video appeared to show him spraying flames directly into a woman’s face during unrest linked to student protests in France.

The teenager, whose face was concealed by a mask, was filmed standing near a bus stop and using what appeared to be a makeshift flamethrower fashioned from an aerosol can and a lighter.

The woman suffered first-degree burns to her face and was treated at the scene, according to Le Parisien.

French police arrested the teenager shortly after the incident.

Attack Came Amid Escalating Student Protests

The attack took place Friday as student demonstrations continued across France.

The protests began with demands for better conditions in schools. Students have raised concerns about poor facilities, classrooms becoming excessively hot and staff shortages caused by high levels of absenteeism.

But the demonstrations have increasingly been accompanied by violence and property damage, with fires being set outside schools in several parts of the country.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray said the movement had been “legitimate at the outset” but accused ultra-left groups of taking control of it.

“For a week now, unspeakable violence has struck our schools,” Geffray said in a post on X. “High schools are being attacked, buildings are being vandalized, sometimes set on fire, and staff are being targeted.”

He added that the original demands were focused on improving public education, while those responsible for the violence were instead seeking to destroy it.

More Than 5,000 Arrested

The scale of the unrest has led to thousands of arrests.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told French television channel TF1 that more than 5,000 people had been arrested since the protests began. Most of those detained were high-school-age minors.

Marseille has been among the areas affected by the unrest.

Students have blockaded school entrances, while fires involving e-scooters and bicycles have been reported around the Saint-Charles secondary school. Riot police have also been deployed in the city as clashes and disorder intensified.

The situation has placed further pressure on authorities as they attempt to contain the protests while addressing the concerns that initially brought students onto the streets.

Hundreds of Schools Face Closures

The French Ministry of National Education announced that at least 400 of the country’s 3,700 high schools would be completely or partially closed on Monday because of the protests.

The decision came as authorities continued to deal with violence at and around schools.

While the demonstrations began with complaints about school conditions, officials have increasingly focused on the disruption, attacks and fires accompanying the movement.

The arrest in Marseille adds another serious incident to a week of unrest that has involved thousands of young people and prompted a major police response across France.