A one-year-old baby was hospitalized with tinnitus on Tuesday morning after a firework mortar exploded at stroller height next to the baby’s ear during a high-school blockade in Saint-Cyr-l’École, west of Paris.
The heinous attack unfolded around 9 a.m. near the Lycée Mansart. According to RMC which cited police sources, the infant suffered acoustic damage after the mortar blast and was taken to hospital with a non-life-threatening prognosis.
According to Le Figaro, a couple was leaving home with their infant in a stroller when a mortar was fired low to the ground toward them. The father shouted at the youths facing him, “You’re crazy, there’s a one-year-old baby!”
🇫🇷🔥 BREAKING: A French physics teacher was doused with gasoline today (Oct. 2) while trying to put out a fire students had lit near a tree in La Ciotat.
The teacher was reportedly temporarily blinded, according to French news reports, when the gasoline was thrown into his eyes.
Youths then began kicking the physics teacher.
The main suspect was reportedly arrested.
Yesterday in Marseille, youths are being investigated for attempted murder after dousing a principal and a vice-principal with gasoline during an attempted arson outside a high school administrative office.
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— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 2, 2026Police sources told the paper the group numbered about ten, all masked, and included two girls – one wearing a white scarf and another in a green top. The girl in green is believed to have lit the device; she fled in the opposite direction while the mortar was still active on the ground. The infant suffered tinnitus from the blast noise and, on initial assessment, no other injuries. Firefighters took the child to hospital; the life-threatening prognosis was not engaged.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene. One resident, having breakfast on her balcony, heard loud bangs, went down, and saw the mother caught between the fireworks with the baby crying heavily.
🇫🇷🚨 BREAKING: Rioters set fire to the entrance of Vauquelin High School in Paris and blocked the exits when staff tried to put the fire out.
A film crew recorded the terrifying attempted murder.
“The school staff was unable to put out the fire. The rioters blocked them just as the extinguisher nozzle came out; they blocked the exit.”
“The fire continues. You see all the silhouettes moving behind it; they continue to feed this fire, making it stronger and stronger. The school staff is not even going to try to put it out anymore; they can’t manage it. We can hear the principal here asking the hundred confined students to step back and move up to the first floor.”
The building was full of staff, students, and journalists, but these rioters appear ready to kill anyone still inside the vocational chemistry school.
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— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 5, 2026The suspect was identified from video filmed by another youth at the scene, pursued into a crowd, and arrested, according to reports. French media puts her age at 16 and says she is in custody for “violence with use or threat of a weapon resulting in incapacity not exceeding eight days.” Versailles prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the incident.
Officers found a balaclava and physiological saline among the suspect’s belongings.
Sonia Brau, the UDI mayor of Saint-Cyr-l’École, told Le Parisien the trajectory of the firework made the danger unmistakable: “This mortar was aimed right at ground level. So at stroller height! Can you imagine? Someone could also have taken it in the ankles.”
She added that the city faces what she called repeated riots and that officers regularly seize mortars and other explosive devices around schools.
🇫🇷🚨 BREAKING: Nelson Mandela High School is currently on fire in the French city of Nantes.
Schools across France are being set on fire as student protests and blockades rage on.
This story is developing.
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— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 1, 2026The incident occurred in the context of massive riots, largely driven by multicultural Arab and Black youths along with far-left agitators, that started in late September over staffing, class sizes, and building conditions and has repeatedly turned violent.
Official tallies cited in the same coverage put arrests since the movement intensified above 6,000, with more than 700 police officers and gendarmes injured and roughly 215 adolescents hurt. Illegal firework mortars have become a recurring weapon during the student riots, including a principal who was struck directly in the face on video, which Remix News reported.
🇫🇷🔴 JUST IN: A school principal was struck directly in the face by a firework mortar during ongoing violent student blockades in France.
The incident happened at Blaise Pascal High School in Rouen.
Later, the entire entrance of the school was set on fire.
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— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 1, 2026Schools have also been targeted with widespread arson while teaching staff has been assaulted and threatened with murder.
