By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-10-04 01:10:40 | Updated at 2026-10-04 01:41:49
35 minutes ago
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested by French police following a horrifying "flamethrower" assault on a woman during violent riots in Marseille.
Video footage showed a hooded youth lighting a can of deodorant and blasting flames directly into the innocent woman's face.
Dressed in a blue suit and carrying a shopping bag, the woman could be seen desperately trying to shield herself as her attacker walked towards her and unleashed his makeshift weapon.
She had previously been pushed against a bus stop by a group of thugs wielding a yellow pedestrian barrier.
She was left with first-degree burns following the attack, according to Le Parisien.
After the vile 15-year-old was arrested on Friday, the prosecutor's office told BFMTV investigators were treating the incident as an intentional attack causing a temporary incapacity to work of eight days or less, with three aggravating factors: using of a weapon, wearing a mask, and participation in a group.
France's riots began last month in deprived suburban areas, with school pupils allegedly protesting against overcrowded class sizes, heavy workloads and shortages of teaching staff.
By this weekend, the situation has descended into mass violence against the state and innocent members of the public.
French intelligence services told a crisis meeting of ministers on Thursday that the riots are being fuelled by the far-left - including the France Unbowed (LFI) party.
Bally Bagayoko, the LFI mayor of the notorious Paris suburb Saint-Denis, has claimed the violence is "legitimate" and has been seen smiling and dancing alongside out-of control youths.
He is now being investigated over "alleged acts of incitement to commit a crime".
Jordan Bardella, the president of the right-wing National Rally party, has denounced what he has called the "lynching" of public servants across the country and has blamed mass migration for the chaos.
"The whole of France has seen the images of teachers, firefighters, and police officers lynched on the outskirts of high schools engulfed in flames.
"There will never be any legitimate claim that calls for setting fire to a place of study and knowledge. There will never be any mitigating circumstances in the assault on a teacher. These barbaric behaviors will never have a place in our society," he said on Friday.
Bally Bagayoko, the LFI mayor of the notorious Paris suburb Saint-Denis, has claimed the violence is 'legitimate'
As well as the "flamethrower" attack, clips of the unrest circulating online include the beating of an unconscious police officer by protesters, and numerous attacks on teachers outside school gates.
More footage from the anarchy shows a hooded youth dousing a teacher in petrol as he tried to extinguish a burning tree.
Education minister Edouard Geffray says close to 2,000 secondary schools have been caught up in the disorder.
Since the protests started on September 21, at least 65 school staff have been hurt, 40 of them headteachers.
Around 170 students and 300 officers have also been injured.
In Belfort, an undercover officer was knocked down by students and kicked in the head while lying unconscious.
"Everything will be done to identify the authors of this abject act," said Laurent Nunez, the Interior Minister, adding that there had been 1,747 arrests on Friday alone for offences including throwing projectiles at "police, teachers, journalists and passers-by".
An arson attack gutted much of the Nelson Mandela high school in Nantes, an eco-friendly building constructed in 2014 at a cost of tens of millions of euros.
LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has threatened that more protests will follow this week.
Hundreds of schools have been shuttered across France in anticipation of more violence.
Mr Melenchon has denied inciting any violence - then went on to brand the thuggery "a starting point" which "will certainly kick off a series of protests" in the days to come.
