On Thursday 8 October 2026, a gathering of lycée and university students takes place at place de la Bastille, in Paris. According to the ministry cited by RTL, during the dispersals “incidents may have occurred, as was the case at place de la Bastille” (translated).
A video, shared on social media and then by BFMTV, shows a crowd of protesters surrounded by law enforcement who are taking a protester away. A police officer from an intervention company, specialised in law enforcement operations according to BFMTV, knees him in the face, then the protester is pinned to the ground and handcuffed. According to BFMTV, the scene takes place at the end of the demonstration, at the time of the dispersal, when law enforcement were trying to push protesters towards boulevard Diderot, in the direction of place de la Nation. A Paris Match video, broadcast on TikTok and picked up on 9 October on an X account, shows the scene from another angle: the protester is held by several police officers then ends up on the ground, with police officers kneeling on him; the subtitles report voices saying “There’s blood everywhere!” (translated) and “He kneed him in the head!” (translated). The protester, then handcuffed and standing, in a light sweatshirt, says “I didn’t do anything!” (translated) and “I was sitting” (translated), and a voice asks for a doctor to be called. The original video could not be identified.
Asked by BFMTV, the police prefecture states: “all afternoon, law enforcement were targeted by a minority of extremely violent individuals. Regarding this action, an administrative investigation will be carried out.” (translated)
Follow-up
On Friday 9 October, the Paris public prosecutor’s office announces that it has, on its own initiative, brought in the IGPN for a flagrante delicto investigation into “violence by a person vested with public authority causing incapacity for work of more than 8 days during a demonstration on the public highway” (translated), after the broadcast of the video “appearing to show a member of law enforcement delivering a knee strike to a protester” (translated) (RTL, franceinfo). According to the public prosecutor’s office, this is the fifth investigation of this kind entrusted to the IGPN by the Paris public prosecutor’s office in connection with the lycée pupils’ movement (RTL, franceinfo).
As of 9 October, the classification of the public prosecutor’s investigation mentioned an incapacity for work of more than 8 days; this was the chosen head of investigation, not a finding of ITT (days of total incapacity for work), and none of the sources read then described the protester’s condition (situation on 10 October: see below).
On 10 October, RMC reports that the man targeted by the knee strike filed a complaint the day before. In it he explains that he received several baton blows, notably to the skull and the right leg, then a knee strike to the face that “prevented him from breathing and made him lose consciousness” (translated); according to his account, he was also the target of racist insults and death threats (account of his complaint, not confirmed by an authority in the sources read). According to RMC, the doctor who examined him noted two scalp wounds of 4 cm, closed with seven staples, as well as pain in the shin and right knee. An investigation for “violence by a person vested with public authority” (translated), entrusted to the IGPN, and an administrative investigation by the police prefecture were already open (RMC). The severity retained (“Serious injury”) comes from the loss of consciousness he describes in his complaint; the medical finding reported by RMC (scalp wounds, seven staples) does not mention it, and the classification of an ITT of more than 8 days remains that of the public prosecutor’s investigation.
According to RMC, this man was himself placed in police custody for “participation in a gathering” (translated) and “violence against a person vested with public authority” (translated), and he is summoned later to be tried in January. This prosecution belongs to a separate procedure: the sources read do not describe the act he is accused of, and the entry retains no fact on that account. In the ICI (Radio France) article updated on 13 October, his lawyer says on franceinfo that he is “in a state of shock” (translated) and suffers from “quite a lot of dizziness” (translated) and asks: “Was a use of force of this kind necessary?” (translated)