On Friday 2 October 2026, in Reims, the member of the European Parliament Anthony Smith (LFI) posts on X a 16-second video with this text: “Police violence live against high-school students today in Reims” (translated) (X, 02/10, 9 p.m. UTC). According to France 3 Grand Est, the images show “a man with a partly masked face, surrounded by young high-school students, throwing a projectile impossible to determine towards an area that is not filmed” (translated), a group of young people according to “concurring sources” (translated); challenged by the MEP, the man walks away with two other men, whose features “are not those of high-school students” (translated) (France 3, 04/10). In the video, the words “Gare Centre” are legible on a tram shelter; France 3 captions the video “next to the square Colbert” (translated).
From 3 October, internet users and La France insoumise members of parliament speak of an “undercover police officer” (translated) (France 3; Entrevue). France 3 quotes a member of parliament who writes that the sequence “seems to show a man belonging to law enforcement dressed in plain clothes who throws a projectile to provoke the students” (translated). On 3 October, France 3 writes that nothing allows this theory to be confirmed or ruled out, and Entrevue that no official confirmation exists; the Reims public prosecutor states: “I do not believe for a second in the presence of plainclothes police officers throwing something at their colleagues” (translated) (France 3, 03/10), seeing in it proof that “more and more non-students are in the marches” (translated). On Sunday 4 October, he says the opposite, confirming that the man is indeed a police officer (without saying whether he was in plain clothes): “He is indeed a police officer throwing a smoke grenade in a public order operation, therefore in a totally lawful setting given the circumstances and the violence of those rioting, throwing stones at the police and using mortars. So no issue, and support for law enforcement” (translated) (France 3, 04/10). According to ICI TV Champagne-Ardenne, cited by France 3, the man reportedly belongs to the anti-crime brigade (BAC); an anonymous police source speaks of a tear gas grenade thrown towards a group of “vehement” (translated) young people, after warnings. These two versions (smoke, tear gas) do not match, and no source read says at what distance, in what exact direction or after what warnings the throw took place.
The MEP replies that he “notes” (translated) that police violence is not condemned, and the day before spoke of “a pure police provocation” (translated) (France 3). On 3 October, the prosecutor also said: “To my knowledge, no protester was injured” (translated) in Reims, and attributed Friday’s violence to “organised groups that go from school to school” (translated) (France 3, 03/10). No injury linked to this scene is reported in the articles read.
Anadolu (04/10), which repeats France 3, writes that the police officer was “in plain clothes” (translated) and from the anti-crime brigade, and attributes this to France 3; the France 3 article read for this entry does not say that the prosecutor specified it: it reports the BAC membership according to ICI TV Champagne-Ardenne, and the plain-clothes dress there is only a member of parliament’s hypothesis. The entry therefore does not treat the plain-clothes dress as established.
Follow-up
No investigation, complaint or referral to the IGPN (police internal affairs) is mentioned in the articles read as of 2026-10-04.