French police 'rammed student protesters with cars funded by British taxpayer'

The incident resulted in a teenager requiring hospital treatment and has raised serious questions about how equipment paid for by UK taxpayers came to be deployed against young demonstrators on French streets.

The 4x4 vehicle used is a land cruiser known as a Masstech VEZI (Vehicule d’Eclairage de Zone d’Intervention).

The reinforced off-road vehicles were acquired under the terms of the 2018 Sandhurst treaty, an Anglo-French border agreement that channels British money towards combating irregular migration.

Instead, footage shared online showed one of these cars being used to charge at schoolchildren protesting over deteriorating educational conditions.

A spokesman from Interior Minister Laurent Nunez's office said: "We can confirm the opening of an investigation into this."

The land cruisers are fitted with protective grilles, intended solely for intercepting asylum seekers attempting to board dinghies on French shores.

The incident was first reported by the French broadcaster BFM TV on October 10, with footage showing the VEZI accelerating towards students before reversing and then lurching forward again, a rubbish bin trapped beneath its front wheel and dragged along the ground.

In the footage, young people can be heard screaming as they scramble to get clear of the vehicle's path.

A 14-year-old girl was struck and taken to hospital, where she was found to have sustained a haematoma. She was subsequently discharged, describing what happened to her as "unacceptable".

A spokesman for Utopia 56, a charity supporting asylum seekers in northern France, said: "The practice of using 4x4s to chase people in the student protest is the same one used on the beaches.

"Disproportionate force is employed to silence, intimidate, and deter. The repressive tactics being tested at the border to prevent crossings should serve as a warning to everyone.

"These are surveillance, control and repression methods that will be replicated in other contexts.

"The incident involving the vehicle in the student protest is proof of this."

The violent riots across France have continued to rock the nation, weeks after they first began at a high school in Creteil, located on the southeastern fringes of Paris.

On Saturday, police arrested more than 1,800 people as more than 550,000 demonstrators took to the streets across the country.

In major urban areas including Paris, Marseille and Lille, mobs of balaclava-clad thugs were spotted hurling projectiles at officers, with some engaging in looting and setting fires to buildings and cars.

Saturday night saw more devastation. The Limoges Town Hall, a historic 143-year-old town hall, was "largely lost" after it was set on fire by rioters.

The tower, located in southwest-central France, was built in 1883 and was made a historic landmark in 1975.

The French Interior Ministry confirmed around 500 emergency service workers — including police officers, gendarmes and firefighters — had been injured during Saturday's unrest.

France's Retail and Trade Federation said roughly 1,500 shops and retailers had been damaged in the widespread disorder.

Mr Nunez estimated around 550,000 people had so far participated in the demonstrations across the country.

United States President Donald Trump declared that "France is burning" on Sunday.

"The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country," he wrote on Truth Social.

"Close your borders and take control, before it is too late."

His words echoed those of his vice president, JD Vance, who said "Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion".

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the Government would not be "intimidated" by violence and blamed the unrest on the "ultra-left" and criminals just months before a presidential election next year.

President Emmanuel Macron is due to address the nation this evening at 8pm local time (7pm BST).

The Home Office declined to comment when approached by The Guardian.