Protester loses fingers in Toulouse clash as French rallies turn tense

A 20-year-old man was severely injured in the hand and lost several fingers during clashes at the end of a Toulouse protest on Saturday, while a second demonstrator was hurt in the eye in Poitiers, French officials said.

The Toulouse injury happened in the Arènes district as the official march ended and police moved to disperse a crowd, the Haute-Garonne prefecture said. A street medic who treated the man, speaking anonymously, said he suffered a serious injury to his right hand, with several fingers torn off, linked to the explosion of a device nearby. Other protesters nearby threw stones and bottles at police, who responded with stun grenades and tear gas, according to BFMTV.

Prosecutors in Toulouse opened an investigation into the cause of the injury, which officials said was not yet known. Investigators may hand the case to the police inspectorate depending on initial findings. A nightly curfew has remained in force in Toulouse's city centre since Thursday.

In Poitiers, a 19-year-old man was hit in the left eye late in the afternoon after riot police charged protesters with shields and used stun and tear-gas grenades, a photographer for regional daily La Nouvelle République said. Street medics said he may have been struck by debris in the eye.

A third injury was reported in Clermont-Ferrand, where a person suffered a serious hand injury, though without losing fingers, the local prefecture said; a police officer was also hurt and taken to hospital there. Officials in Clermont-Ferrand said a source close to the case believed the injury had not been caused by a police grenade.

The Toulouse march drew between 26,500 and 80,000 people, depending on police or union estimates, as part of nationwide demonstrations over the cost of living. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 135 people had been detained across France by early afternoon, mostly during identity checks rather than during the marches themselves.