Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has joined French student protests as marches demanding better conditions at educational institutions are expected to continue across the country.
On Tuesday morning, Thunberg was at Paul Eluard high school, the focal point of the movement in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, standing alongside protesting students.
"Young people are not being included in the discussion. Our future is being stolen from us," Thunberg told AFP.
Lawyers in their professional robes also formed a human chain to protect the teenagers after multiple allegations of police use of force at the protests.
The protests began late last month when students demanded improvements to a range of issues, including the state of school facilities, teacher shortages, overloaded schedules and other problems in the education system.
Students have piled up trash bins and erected security barricades outside hundreds of schools across the country.
Last Thursday, more than 70,000 people took to the streets in the largest protest event so far.
Tuesday's demonstration, backed by unions and the left-wing opposition party France Unbowed, was expected to include a march through Paris and rallies in other cities.
The university student union l'Union wrote on X: "They are not listening to us, so we will go to them."
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on France Inter on Tuesday morning that around 200 schools had closed, "fewer than last week," adding that some schools near protest routes had also shut to avoid damage.
The National Education Ministry also said eight teaching staff were injured on Monday, mainly in the Paris area and the cities of Bordeaux and Lyon, as a result of the protests.
On Monday, a 19-year-old graphic design student in Paris, Leo, told AFP that "students are not being listened to enough... not just their proposals to the government and elected officials."
He added that the protesters, many of them minors, "are troubled by an unprecedented level of repression against a student movement."
Tuesday's pro-student protests are expected to be followed on Saturday by larger public rallies against the rising cost of living.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at a car show that he was calling on protesters to show restraint.
"These are issues that require time, consultation, discussion and respect," Macron said.
According to the Justice Ministry, more than 6,800 people, mostly minors, have been taken into police custody during the protests.
Police have also opened investigations into 24 allegations of use of force against protesters.
