France, Oct. 8 -- Speaking in a televised address on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said France could not remain "indifferent" to the concerns being raised by high school students, acknowledging that "the anger of young people does not come from nowhere".

He denied that police and gendarmes had been given "orders to confront" protesters and said the government would present a plan at the end of October aimed at addressing the crisis.

His intervention came as the scale of the unrest continued to mount. Hundreds of students, police officers and education staff have been injured since the protests began, while more than 6,500 people - most of them minors - have been arrested.

The movement has spread rapidly across Fra...