The public prosecutor in Rouen has opened an investigation after videos circulated showing a police officer throwing a projectile that detonated at the feet of a child during the October 24 demonstrations, ladepeche.fr reported, citing Agence France-Presse. The Seine-Maritime prefecture said the inquiry was launched "to establish the exact circumstances of the intervention," according to the same outlet.
The case has become one of the sharpest flashpoints in a widening wave of social unrest in France, which has already produced two national days of protest this month and is now drawing in school students, university organizations, shopkeepers and the Yellow Vests movement.
Why it matters
The Rouen incident puts police tactics under judicial scrutiny at a moment when the government is trying to contain anger on several fronts at once. It follows a demonstration day that also left a 59-year-old man dead near the October 17 march, a death his family is now contesting in court. Each of these cases feeds a broader argument about how the state has handled the protests — and each gives organizers a further reason to keep people on the streets.
What is known about the Rouen episode
According to ladepeche.fr, the videos show an officer launching the device, which exploded beside a child. The report places the scene on the margins of the October 24 marches.
Rouen's Socialist mayor, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, had already referred the matter to prosecutors on Monday, asking that sanctions follow if "failures were confirmed," ladepeche.fr reported. The mayor's account, as cited by the outlet, is that around 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, a woman named Mme Kljakic and her three minor children were walking home from an outing when the incident occurred.
France 3 Régions framed the question at the center of the case directly, quoting the reaction "these children had asked for nothing" and asking whether the officer's action was legitimate. Le Monde and Le Parisien both reported the opening of the inquiry, and RTL published an explainer on what is known so far.
A government trying to calm the schools
The Rouen inquiry lands in the middle of a standoff over education. On Monday, October 26, Education Minister Édouard Geffray presented a package of measures intended to defuse calls for mobilization, ladepeche.fr reported: a reform of the Parcoursup university admissions platform leading to its replacement by 2028, 15,000 additional places in higher education, a €5 billion renovation plan for lycées and universities, and a cap of 28 students per seconde class.
The youth intersyndicale was not persuaded and has called for another day of action on October 31, according to the outlet.
Speaking to BFMTV on Tuesday evening, Geffray said three weeks of dialogue had taken place and that he had met student associations repeatedly, ladepeche.fr reported. He noted that pupils had submitted more than 100,000 contributions on a platform set up to collect their demands, and he urged them to return to class on Monday, when the school holidays end. "The general interest today is that pupils go to class," the minister said, according to the outlet.
In Toulouse, the local branch of the Union syndicale lycéenne dismissed the announcements as a smokescreen, ladepeche.fr reported, saying the measures did not add up and that its representatives were meeting to decide how to continue the campaign.
Damage to shops, and a death under dispute
Serge Papin, the minister for small business, trade and purchasing power, estimated that 3,000 businesses were affected in the broad sense during the October 17 and 24 protest days, ladepeche.fr reported. Of those, 357 were looted on October 17, compared with fewer than a hundred on October 24. "It is always too many, but it is a sign that order has been restored," he told Le Parisien, according to the outlet, adding: "We do not want to relive October 17."
Support of up to €10,000 is planned for the hardest-hit traders, alongside regional aid — including €5 million mobilized by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, according to the report. The aim, Papin said, is to let businesses "restart quickly enough or hold on with partial activity."
Separately, the family of the 59-year-old man who died near the October 17 demonstration filed a complaint on Monday, October 26, Franceinfo reported, according to ladepeche.fr. The complaint alleges "intentional violence by a person holding public authority causing death without intent to cause it," the outlet reported, confirming an earlier report by Blast.
Fuel, prices and political pressure
The unrest is unfolding against a backdrop of strained household budgets. Dominique Schelcher, head of the Coopérative U retail group, told Europe 1 on Tuesday morning that fuel consumption in October had suffered a "genuine collapse," with declines of up to 40 percent at some of the group's stations, ladepeche.fr reported. Petrol and diesel prices have not come down, the outlet noted, because of the war in the Middle East.
Former president François Hollande, visiting Finistère, called for urgent measures on purchasing power and described fuel aid as insufficient, according to the outlet. He said the executive "has already lost a lot of time with the lycéens" and that such delay "could have spared a certain number of movements," urging the government to open negotiations with employers and unions quickly and saying things "must move fast after November 5."
The Yellow Vests have called a new "act against the high cost of living" for Saturday, October 31, ladepeche.fr reported, with the official mobilization map listing further gatherings and sit-ins outside the National Assembly and town halls.
What to watch
The Rouen investigation now sits alongside the family's complaint over the October 17 death, and both will shape how the next protest day is received. The immediate test comes on October 31, when youth organizations and the Yellow Vests are both calling people out — and when the government's concessions will be measured against the streets rather than the negotiating table.
