A shocking video from Marseille, France, shows a 15-year-old using a homemade flamethrower on a woman during student protests, resulting in her sustaining first-degree burns. The incident occurred after the woman demanded an end to vandalism, reportedly angering the minor. This attack has become a focal point amid broader student demonstrations across France, fueled by concerns over school resources, demanding schedules, and complicated university admission processes.

A shocking video from Marseille, France, shows a 15-year-old using a homemade flamethrower on a woman during student protests, resulting in her sustaining first-degree burns. The incident occurred after the woman demanded an end to vandalism, reportedly angering the minor. This attack has become a focal point amid broader student demonstrations across France, fueled by concerns over school resources, demanding schedules, and complicated university admission processes.

A shocking video from Marseille, France, shows a 15-year-old using a homemade flamethrower on a woman during student protests, resulting in her sustaining first-degree burns. The incident occurred after the woman demanded an end to vandalism, reportedly angering the minor. This attack has become a focal point amid broader student demonstrations across France, fueled by concerns over school resources, demanding schedules, and complicated university admission processes.

A shocking video from France showed a masked protester firing a flamethrower at a woman's face from close quarters. The woman, cornered against the back of what looks like a bus waiting shed, screams in pain as the flame burns her face, the shocking video showed.

The viral video, shot during student protests, is being shared online with varying claims. Some posts claimed that the hooded attacker was a migrant who decided to target the woman because she was "white." "Watch an anti-white invader blowtorch a woman’s face for the crime of being European. The massive unprecedented riots in France are a racial uprising against the indigenous whites," one such post said.

Where was the viral video shot?

Meanwhile, available information in Western media directly links the incident to student protests in France. The accused, who used the home-built flamethrower, has been identified as a 15-year-old by The Telegraph. He was arrested after the woman suffered first-degree burns as a result of his actions, the report added.

The assault occurred earlier this week in Marseille, and the accused was detained on Friday night. Speaking about the motive for the attack, The Telegraph report from October 3 said that the woman demanded an end to the vandalism, which angered the minor, who launched his lighter-operated aerosol flamethrower at her.

Since the accused is a minor, his identity, family details, and ethnicity-revealing information have not been disclosed by the French Police.

Why are French students protesting?

Protests first erupted last week in the Paris region and spread nationwide as high schoolers expressed broad grievances—mainly that schools are under-resourced, with dilapidated facilities and insufficient staff. 

Students also complain that school days, which often start at 8 am, are too exhausting and the university entrance system too complex. Some university students also joined the protests this week.

Public sentiment in favour of the protestors is quickly evaporating against the backdrop of arson and violence. The unrest is sharpening political battle lines between presidential candidates in poll-bound France.

According to news agency Associated Press, far-right leader Marine Le Pen has called for broader police powers against rioters. Conservative former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, one of Le Pen's main challengers for the presidency, has condemned those who "break things, burn things, or assault people."

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