High School Students’ March in Paris Turns Into a Riot

Youths wrecked stores and stoned riot police today as more than 100,000 high school students nationwide joined marches demanding more teachers, better facilities and improved security on campus.

Authorities said most of the marchers in more than a dozen cities were orderly. But scores of youths threw stones and bottles at riot police deployed near the National Assembly building in Paris, where lawmakers opened debate on the 1991 education budget.

At least five police officers and eight journalists were injured by projectiles, police said.

Police responded to the bombardment by pushing back some of the youths with clubs, but they generally avoided confrontations.

March organizers urged the protesters to remain peaceful and blamed the violence on provocateurs.

Estimates of the number of protesters in Paris ranged from 20,000 to 40,000.

Youths damaged several stores, telephone booths and newsstands during a rampage that lasted about an hour. Some students were seen trying to limit the damage by passing potential projectiles to police officers deployed behind barricades.

Police Chief Pierre Verbrugghe said an unspecified number of youths were arrested for looting a store along the march route.

Earlier, some youths had chanted slogans comparing the riot squads with Nazi Germany’s SS forces.

Other marches involving at least 3,000 students each were reported in Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, Rennes, Brest, Clermont-Ferrand, Strasbourg, Lille, Lens, Nancy, Marseille and Bordeaux. At least two cars were damaged in Lyon, where an estimated 6,000 students marched.