France launches attempted murder investigation after petrol bomb thrown at police

Prosecutors in France have introduced an attempted murder investigation after petrol bombs were thrown at police during unrest, French media noted.

Key points

• There were more than 770 arrests on Saturday, roughly half as plenty of as the previous week's protests, the French interior ministry stated.
• French protest organisers, the Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vests, have remarked dozens of protesters have been seriously injured during recent demonstrations nationwide, with numerous hurt by "grenades".
• Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez remarked throwing a molotov cocktail at a police line was "what I call a murder attempt", adding officers were working to find the perpetrators.
• The officer, who suffered burns to his ankle and minor injures to his hand, informed French newspaper Le Figaro it was a "particularly sophisticated" incendiary device.
• After previous clashes and looting, thousands of police officers were deployed nationwide over the weekend, and officers fired tear gas at demonstrators in some cities.

Notably, an image of a police officer with his leg on fire during a clash with protesters in Paris on Saturday has prompted outrage and follows weeks of street protests in France that have additionally seen demonstrators injured.

For context, the officer, who suffered burns to his ankle and minor injures to his hand, informed French newspaper Le Figaro it was a "particularly sophisticated" incendiary device.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals demonstrated throughout France in largely peaceful protests on Saturday, the latest in a series of youth-led protests that began in late September demanding action on the high cost of living and poor public services, especially schools.

But police remarked no one had been arrested for the attack caught on camera that set a police officer on fire, AFP noted.

Notably, the officer – part of the National Gendarmerie, a national law enforcement force that is technically part of the military but under the control of the interior ministry – remarked his unit "suddenly found ourselves facing several hundred hostile, well equipped adversaries".

Speaking to French newspaper Le Figaro, he remarked police were yet to identify the liquid employed but that the incendiary device "had a far greater burning capacity than a standard Molotov cocktail".

"We faced hostile individuals who are not protesters, " he remarked. "These adversaries are there with the intent to harm those who represent the state."

Fourteen other officers sustained wounds ranging from minor to serious, he remarked, adding some were struck by paving stones. The unit was supposed to be on leave but had been urgently recalled to police the weekend protests, he remarked.

France suspended the employ of one type of stun grenade while policing student protests in early October after a 15-year-old's hand was blown off, but French newspaper Le Monde has noted that police have continued to employ a different model in subsequent protests.

As mainly youth-led protests continue throughout parts of Europe, with varying demands but broadly linked to a focus on cost-of-living problems and public services, protests additionally took place in Germany and Italy over the weekend.

For now, france launches attempted murder investigation after petrol bomb thrown at police remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.