A 17-year-old Bulgarian national has been remanded in custody after allegedly attacking a police commander during protests in Belfort, France, with prosecutors charging him with violence against a law enforcement officer, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Belfort prosecutor Paul-Édouard Lallois announced the detention at a briefing, with NOVA and other Bulgarian media reporting on the case. A second minor, aged 15, has been placed under judicial supervision.

The incident occurred on October 2 near the Gustave Courbet High School, where a protest blockade was taking place. The demonstrations had begun the previous week over dissatisfaction with the quality of education and spread from Paris to other cities, including Montpellier, Nantes and Marseille.

High school students and other citizens have protested teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and the poor condition of school facilities. Twenty-four schools have been set on fire or looted, while more than 5,000 people have been taken into custody.

The police commander, who was in plainclothes, tried to detain a young person near the Savoureuse River but was attacked by several youths and knocked to the ground.

“Witness testimonies and video footage from the scene establish that one of the youths approached the police officer from behind and struck him hard with his fist, knocking him to the ground and thereby freeing the person who had just been detained,” Lallois said.

Policier lynché à Belfort (90) : l'émeutier de 17 ans au cœur de l'affaire, un étranger bulgare né en Russie, porte plainte pour "tentative de meurtre" car l'agent aurait tenté de le noyer juste avant. Son avocat Arié Alimi accuse le procureur de "mentir" https://t.co/zwz8iHRMmj

— Fdesouche.com est une revue de presse (@F_Desouche) October 4, 2026

The officer was then punched and kicked, including several blows to the head. He lost consciousness and was hospitalized. The commander, born in 1967, heads the departmental territorial intelligence service in Belfort.

The 17-year-old was detained together with the 15-year-old during the blockade. Investigators identified him partly through handcuffs that remained attached to one of his wrists after he fled the scene. According to the prosecution, acquaintances later helped him remove the handcuffs by cutting them with pliers.

During questioning, the teenager acknowledged taking part in the assault and admitted that he had thrown stones at police officers earlier that day.

“I don't know if it was the adrenaline, but I kicked him in the head twice,” the student said, according to the prosecutor.

He told investigators that he had gone to the river to wash his hands after an egg broke in his pocket. The officer detained him in the water but managed to secure only one of his wrists before other youths attacked him from behind.

The teenager said the officer had detained him in the water, while footage of his arrest had been posted on social media before the assault on the commander.

The prosecution said photographs recovered from the teenager’s phone showed him taking part in riots in Belfort and setting fire to trash cans on previous days. Investigators also found a photograph of the front page of local newspaper L’Est Républicain, in which the teenager appeared among masked protesters. He told investigators that he had kept the image as a memento.

The teenager was born in Russia, but he and both of his parents hold Bulgarian citizenship. The family moved to France in 2020 and has four children in total. The teenager attends Gustave Courbet High School in Belfort and has no criminal record.

His mother is a homemaker, while his father works as an IT engineer in Germany. Belfort is in eastern France, close to the German and Swiss borders. The prosecutor’s office said the family had not previously been known to the authorities.

Lallois said the teenager had acknowledged the violence against the police commander and other acts of violence in Belfort in recent days.

“He admitted to the violence he committed against the police commander, including kicking him in the head twice. He also admitted to participating in other acts of violence in the city in recent days,” the prosecutor said.

The teenager’s lawyer, Arié Alimi, disputes the prosecution’s account of what happened during the arrest. Alimi, a member of the national council of the Human Rights League, alleges that the officer deliberately held his client’s head underwater and has filed a complaint for attempted murder against the police commander.

The lawyer told RTL that his client had clearly said his head was held underwater during the arrest.

“the officer also admitted to holding my client's head underwater,” Alimi said on air.

The teenager told prosecutors that he did not believe the officer was trying to drown him, but that he had “initially had that impression” because he was “surprised.”

The prosecution rejects the allegation that the officer attempted to drown the teenager. Measurements made at the scene showed that the water was 19 centimeters deep.

Alimi has also named Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez in the complaint, accusing him of giving instructions to police officers concerning the high school protests.

“We firmly believe that this truly brutal act could not have happened had there not been specific instructions given by this police officer's superior,” Alimi said.

The case was initially investigated as attempted murder. After reviewing the evidence, however, prosecutors concluded that there was not enough proof that either minor had intended to kill the police officer.

The two minors were instead charged with violence against a law enforcement officer, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years.

The 17-year-old remains in custody and, according to the prosecution, has expressed regret over the blows he delivered.