Hundreds of young people took to the streets of Paris on Thursday in protests against alleged police brutality.
Report say 16 secondary schools were forced to shut down as a result of the protest.
The protests erupted over the violent arrest of a man who was identified as Theo, who was allegedly sodomized with a police baton in the suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois on Feb. 2.
“Some 800 to 1,000 demonstrators gathered at the city’s Place de la Nation square.
“Twenty six persons were arrested across the region, mainly for violent robbery during the protests,’’ the police said.
Public broadcaster France Info quoted school authorities as saying that 16 secondary schools had been barricaded as at Thursday evening.
The education authority for greater Paris said that at one school, the vice principal was injured when a fire extinguisher was thrown at him.
Four policemen are under investigation over the arrest of Theo, with one of them suspected of having sodomized the young man and three others suspected of premeditated violence.
The city’s poorer northern suburbs have seen repeated clashes between youths and police and dozens of arrests since the incident, despite a call for calm from the victim.
Young men from the suburbs, especially those from ethnic minorities, complain they were frequently stopped and checked by police and are not treated with respect.
Representatives of the police said that their members were working under difficult conditions in areas with high crime rates and were frequently come under attack. (dpa/NAN)