Joe Coughlan
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

More than 250,000 protesters took to the streets across France, according to the country's interior ministry, as students demanded greater investment in their schools.

The unrest included a barricade being set on fire in Lyon, with police using tear gas on people in Paris and Marseille as well as water cannon in Rennes - here's a look at the latest pictures from the demonstrations in Strasbourg.

One officer was charged after a boy was hit by a projectile that led to "a double jaw fracture" during protests near Paris last week.

Demands from protesters have included more places in higher education and funding for the emergency reconstruction of schools.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has labelled claims of repression from the government towards the protests as "false" after Jean-Luc Melanchon, leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise party, said the prime minister had youth "tear-gassed and clubbed to create chaos and violence".

As demonstrations continue, French students’ union spokesperson Alice Cohen-Morzadec tells BBC News that the movement will "amplify even more until we get our demands".

We are ending our live coverage for now but you can read more in our news story here.

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

Since the protests began on 28 September, 6,547 people have been arrested or stopped by police, according to figures confirmed to the BBC by France's interior ministry.

Reports in French media say 488 were arrested on Tuesday following widespread disorder across the country.

Rozina Sini
Your Voice

Image source, Anadolu via Getty Images

A British parent living in France with his children in school there says he feels "shocked over how under funded the education system is".

David says "there are no teaching assistants", and headteachers are often teaching themselves, as well as acting as the receptionist and care taker.

He says he understands why teachers are striking and why students have decided to say "enough is enough".

"The pressure on the teaching staff is huge, so I see lots of teachers stressed out, screaming at the kids all day long and little positive engagement with pupils."

David describes many of the schools as "concrete blocks with concrete sparse playgrounds" where children suffer from the heat in summer, and in the winter face heating that "may not work".

He says teachers are paid poorly and feels like there is a "general lack of care" to schooling from past and present governments to invest in the education system.

What is the state of French classrooms?published at 19:01 BST 6 October

19:01 BST 6 October

By Tamara Kovacevic

Overcrowded classes, a lack of teachers and crumbling classrooms are three key issues many students in France say they are are protesting over.

France does have the largest class sizes in the EU. According to the latest OECD data, there were 25 pupils per teacher in French government-funded lower secondary schools (age 10 to 15) in 2024.

By comparison, there were 24 students per class in Germany and Spain, 20 in Italy and Denmark, 19 in Finland and 18 in Poland.

Last year the French government’s education report highlighted teacher shortages in secondary schools, including a third of teaching positions in classic literature and more than a quarter in maths, physics and chemistry unfilled at the time.

A 2024 French Senate report described French school buildings as “a considerable and ageing real estate asset, which requires large-scale renovation work”.

Manon Prat
Reporting from Paris

Madalena, Mathilde and Camila are high school students in Paris who took part in today's march.

They did not wish to show their faces but told us they all supported the demands of students who have worse teaching conditions than they do.

"Sometimes we have teachers who are absent for several weeks without being replaced, or we are boiling hot in summer during heatwaves because the building isn't suited to it, but we are aware that others have it worse than we do," Madalena said.

"Some schools have no supervisors, nurses or psychologists. Others have no working toilets, have ceilings collapsing... or have flooding in their classrooms and power cuts."

She said they were protesting not "for our own personal conditions, but so that everyone is treated the same and there is more equality."

Mathilde said there was already "not enough money for students' school supplies, and most of them had to buy their own textbooks".

Camila said she and her peers blockades her school in support of the students who needed funding most. "We want to show them that we are with them," she said.

Our reporters on the ground are reporting that the protests at Place de la Nation in Paris are winding down.

The protest started about 14:00 CEST (13:00 BST), moving from Place de la République, towards Place de la Nation.

As thousands marched through the streets of the capital today, some chaotic scenes broke out.

The footage below shows riot police using batons and tear gas as they clashed with protesters, some using fireworks and throwing canisters.

Image source, Reuters

The demonstrations have also become a vehicle for political sparring, with French PM Sébastien Lecornu denying claims of repression following accusations government handling of the protests was spurring chaos.

Jean-Luc Melanchon, leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party, said on X the prime minister had youth "tear-gassed and clubbed to create chaos and violence".

But Lecornu said on X that it was a lie that the government was ordering repression.

"Instructions on proportionality have been given to police officers and gendarmes. What triggers their intervention is violence," he said earlier.

"In such sensitive law enforcement operations, accidents can happen. When they do, the rule of law applies: administrative or judicial investigations, transparency, and the pursuit of accountability. And there must be empathy. But speaking of 'police violence' to suggest that there would be political instructions for repression is false.

"The situation is serious enough without needing a cowardly political class fanning the flames to incite violence and orchestrate chaos for electoral gain."

A police officer has been charged after a high school student was injured by a projectile in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, near Paris, last week.

Here's what know about the incident:

• A 14-year-old boy suffered "a double jaw fracture" after reportedly being struck in the head by a tear gas grenade on 28 September
• According to the the teenager's lawyer, the boy, Eden, underwent "extremely major surgery"
• Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced an investigation following the incident
• On Monday Eden's mother told a news conference her son "can't eat except through a straw and only liquids", French media outlet BFMTV reported

• The Pontoise prosecutor announced the officer had been charged on Tuesday

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

According to interior ministry figures, more than a quarter of a million people have demonstrated across France, including some 56,000 people who have marched through central Paris.

The organisers will be happy with this turnout in the capital, where tens of thousands of exhilarated teenagers have been marching from the Place de la Republique under banners demanding a re-ordering of government priorities: more resources for schools, less what they call repression from police.

There was a bit of stone-throwing and a bit of tear-gas, but none of the serious trouble that’s marred protests at schools in the last week.

The government is now under pressure to respond. What it’s offered so far – a website for students to express their grievances and an afternoon of internal discussion in schools on Friday – has not made much of an impression.

The protesters want specifics: a commitment to spend more money on schools. But with the piteous state of French finances, that won’t be easy.

• We reported earlier that 450,000 people were protesting across the country, according to the student union L'Union Etudiante. The BBC has been unable to verify either figures provided by the interior ministry or the union.

In Strasbourg, in north-east France, tear gas has been deployed against protesters demonstrating in the streets. Below are the latest pictures from the scene:

Police have also fired tear gas in Paris, Rennes and Marseille.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

French media are reporting that President Emmanuel Macron will meet ministers this evening at the Élysée Palace.

The meeting is expected to include PM Sébastien Lecornu, Education Minister Édouard Geffray, and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.

Image source, EPA

Bruno Boelpaep
Reporting from Lille

Earlier I spoke to Brice, 26, who I photographed during a stand-off between demonstrators and police at Place de La République in Lille.

“It gives me hope to see these young students on the streets, I feel it is important to support them. I’m no longer at school but I support them," Brice says.

"They’re only asking for equality of chances, they want to study in good conditions, no more. Being on the streets is important, it can change things."

A police officer who fired a projectile launcher that injured a high school student during protests in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône last week has been charged, multiple French outlets are reporting.

We'll bring you more details soon.

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

The students are complaining about lack of investment in education, but how does France compare to other developed countries in the money it spends on schools and universities?

According to the European Union, France’s spending on education relative to GDP is the fifth highest in the EU27, behind Sweden, Finland, Belgium and Denmark.

The absolute amount it spends per student in education is just below the EU average.

According to the OECD, France spends close to the OECD average per student – but with strong differences depending on the age group.

It spends below the average for primary and lower secondary education. But it spends 24% more than the average for upper secondary – i.e. lycées.

Image source, Getty Images

The French vocational training minister Sabrina Roubache says "we must listen to what young people are telling us", but adds they should understand they are "lucky".

"We are in France, we are a very great country," she tells BBC's Newshour. "We are lucky, we have high school free, university free, school free, the health [care is] free in France."

Roubache adds that France has a social model that is "maybe the best in the world".

She says she has been out to listen to young people today, dismissing concerns police are responding too harshly to protesters.

Roubache says there is a lot of "very high violence from young people" and cannot ask police officials to do nothing in response.

L'Union Etudiante, a student body helping organise the protests, says 450,000 protesters have taken to the streets throughout France today, which it says is "absolutely historic".

We reported earlier that an estimated 86,000 protesters were demonstrating in areas outside the Paris region, according to France's interior ministry, which has been providing separate figures.

Sadaf Maruf
Your Voice news editor

Kate Deegan, 20, has just started teaching at a secondary school and college in Arcachon - a seaside resort 40 minutes from Bordeaux.

The British student studying at Edinburgh University is living in France for her year abroad, and tells BBC Your Voice that a majority of students at the college are protesting.

"On Friday many of them were affected by tear gas outside the school, including a teacher. We were given face masks to wear as the tear gas came into the grounds of the school too," she says.

Deegan says she felt sorry for the students, some of whom were coughing and crying from the tear gas while studying in class.

She adds that her lessons have been cancelled at both institutions over safety risks today.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

The demonstration in Rennes is now over - but not before protesters lit a large fire in Place Sainte-Anne, according to the prefect of Brittany and Ille-et-Vilaine.

Earlier, pictures from AFP showed riot police officers using a water cannon and tear gas in the Place de la Republique during clashes with protesters.

In a statement, the prefect said this was used to disperse a "hostile group" that had thrown "numerous projectiles at the police officers" and tried to break through a police cordon.

A later statement said the march had continued to the Place Sainte-Anne, where some protestors lit a "large garbage fire". Firefighters intervened under police protection, the prefect added.

Mark Lowen
Reporting from Marseille

All through the day, thousands of protesters have moved around this city, stopping momentarily to chant, only then to move on as the police have changed direction.

A few moments ago, we watched as a group of masked protesters grabbed bollards and bins and tried to barricade themselves off from police.

Riot officers fired tear gas, and the protesters dispersed.

I can feel it in my throat and eyes here. Tear gas lingers in the air for some time.

It’s a sign of how volatile this situation is - and how, for the moment, the government response hasn’t contained this.

We're now receiving pictures of tear gas being deployed amid protests in Paris, with footage captured by Reuters showing one demonstrator kicking a canister as people disperse in the chaos.

Image source, Reuters