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First aid

Key points

  • Protect, alert, help; life-threatening emergency: 112 or 15, with a precise location.
  • Gas: get out of the cloud facing the wind, without running, don't rub, rinse with saline solution.
  • Injured person: when in doubt, 15; pressure point if bleeding heavily; no medical procedures (stitching, removing fragments).
  • Eye injury: don't rinse, cover without pressing, call 112.
  • Unconscious and breathing: recovery position (PLS); not breathing: chest compressions without stopping.
  • Violent blow to the head or neck: do not move them, head in line, helmet on.
  • Head injury: don't leave the person alone; vomiting or confusion, call 112.
  • Afterwards: get any injury recorded (certificate with ITT) and keep track of symptoms.

Where to start?

Three reflexes, in order: protect (get yourself and the person to safety), alert, help. Protect yourself too: the aim is not to end up with two victims. Look for the march's street medics: they are trained and equipped.1

Life-threatening emergency

Unconscious person, breathing badly, heavy bleeding, head or eye injury: call 112 (or 15, SAMU). Give a precise location (street, number, landmark).

Flowchart: someone is injured or gassed

  1. Life-threatening? Unconscious, struggling to breathe, bleeding heavily, head or eye injury.
    • Yes → call 112 (or 15) with a precise location, stay with the person.1
    • No → next step.
  2. Tear gas?
    • Yes → get out of the cloud facing the wind, don't rub, rinse with saline solution, remove contact lenses.2
    • No → next step.
  3. What injury?
    • Bleeding → press hard with a clean cloth, without letting go.3
    • Eye hit by a projectile → don't rinse, cover without pressing, 112.
    • Violent blow to the head, neck or back → don't move them, head in line, 112.
    • Head injury → don't leave the person alone; vomiting, confusion or loss of consciousness: 112.
    • Burn → lukewarm water for 10 to 20 minutes.4
  4. Then → street medics or a doctor; get the injuries recorded (certificate with ITT) and photograph them.5

Tear gas

  1. Don't panic: the situation is temporary, and running will only make you swallow more gas. If you have protection, protect your eyes first, so you can find your bearings.6
  2. Get out of the cloud: check the wind direction and where the police are, move away (often ten metres or so to the side is enough), stand facing the wind, on higher ground if possible. Don't run into the crowd: leave at a calm jog to avoid crowd surges.26
  3. Without a mask: make an air pocket inside your jacket or jumper and take small breaths every ten seconds (without holding your breath, so as not to panic). Don't bend down: gas sinks towards the ground (take care with children).6
  4. Don't rub your eyes or face.
  5. Rinse the eyes generously with saline or clean water, head tilted to the side, from the inner to the outer corner of the eye.2
  6. Remove contact lenses if you wear them (clean hands).7
  7. Spit, blow your nose, don't swallow.
  8. After the protest: cold shower first (hot water opens the pores), wash clothes separately.8

If you are struggling or disoriented, wave an arm to signal it. If you are doing better, help others: tap the person's shoulder to show you are there to help (and not a cop), invite them not to run and to leave calmly.6

See a doctor if breathing difficulty, eye pain or vomiting lasts several hours, and in case of asthma, pregnancy or heart conditions.

Helping an injured person

When in doubt, call 15

Better to call for nothing than too late. You can give first aid (chest compressions, recovery position, quick disinfection, pressure point): these are first-aider skills. Medical procedures (stitching, removing fragments) are on the other hand strongly discouraged, and do not give medication. One exception: an asthmatic person in respiratory distress who asks for their inhaler. They know their treatment, help them take it, do not refuse it.69

First contact: channel the crowd by speaking clearly and assigning tasks to specific people ("you in the red T-shirt, call 15"), to avoid the bystander effect. Priorities depend on the situation: form a safety perimeter if the area is dangerous, watch the surroundings, call the emergency services.6

  • Ask people not to photograph the victim ("respect the victim's privacy, their safety comes first, thank you").
  • Someone able to give care takes charge of it; another takes care of the psychological side: introduce yourself calmly, try to find one of their acquaintances.
  • Ask the calmest bystanders to explain what happened, to assess the causes and consequences of the injury.

Assessment, in order (the ABC):6

  1. L: large wound. Very serious wound (large vein or artery): apply a pressure point at once (press hard where it bleeds heavily); a tourniquet only as a last resort.
  2. Address the person: talk to them, ask them to squeeze your hands, see if they react to stimuli.
  3. A: airway. Check they are breathing: listen close to their mouth (or watch for mist on a smartphone held in front of it) and see whether their chest rises.
  4. B: bleeding. Check they have no wounds that keep bleeding.
  5. C: circulation. Take their pulse: middle and index finger (never the thumb) on the inside of the wrist with light pressure, or in the hollow of the neck under the jaw. A person who is feeling faint has a very weak pulse.

Unconscious (does not respond): check their breathing for 10 seconds. They are breathing: put them in the recovery position (PLS), call 15 and keep watching their breathing, unless there was a violent blow to the head, neck or back (see below).10 They are not breathing normally or have no pulse: call 15, start chest compressions straight away (centre of the chest, hard and fast), without stopping until help arrives; if there are several of you, swap every 2 minutes with as little interruption as possible, and use a defibrillator if there is one.119

Give nothing to eat or drink to a seriously injured or half-conscious person: risk of inhalation, and they must stay fasting if they need surgery.

First-aid kit

Don't perform a procedure you don't know: get trained with Medicaction — Guides street medics.6

  • Basics: non-woven absorbent compresses, medical tape and adhesive plasters, chlorhexidine-type disinfectant (avoid iodine solutions such as Betadine), sterile gloves, ideally latex-free (stored in pairs in film canisters or Kinder egg capsules), something to "re-sugar" a faint person (a drinkable fruit compote for example).
  • Depending on your training: survival blanket (gold side out, for shock), cold pack and cold spray, bandage rolls and sterile compresses in several sizes, triangular bandages, tweezers, safety pin, spare torch and batteries, pen (to note the time a tourniquet was applied, for example), tulle gras dressing, scissors.
  • Skin, mouth, nose: Medicaction mentions Maalox (never on the eyes, for which saline solution is used).
  • Beware of confiscation: saline, Maalox, filtering masks, sealed eye goggles and scissors are often seized, or even objectionable depending on context, during searches (see "Protest kit and outfit").6

Injuries

  • Bleeding: press hard with a compress or clean cloth, without letting go, until help arrives.3
  • Grenade shrapnel peppering (GM2L, GL-304, stun munition): tell emergency staff that red/orange plastic or black rubber fragments are invisible on standard X-rays (ask for an ultrasound or CT scan) and watch for shortness of breath or dizziness from the blast effect (see "Police weapons: effects, injuries and debris").12
  • Violent blow to the head, neck or back (hard hit, serious fall): do not move them, ask them not to move, hold their head with both hands in line with neck and trunk, call 112. Do not remove their helmet unless you are trained: a trained team removes it with two people, or alone if the person is unconscious, to check breathing.9
  • Head blow (baton, projectile, minor fall): have the person sit or lie down, don't leave them alone, call 112 if they vomit, are confused, drowsy or lost consciousness, even briefly.2
  • Eye injury: don't rinse or touch an eye hurt by a projectile; cover it without pressing and call 112.
  • Burn (grenade, tear-gas puck): cool with lukewarm water for 10 to 20 minutes; don't burst blisters.4
  • Explosion noise and ringing ears: see someone quickly, hearing damage is better treated early.

Fainting, heat, panic attack

  • Move the person into the shade, somewhere calm, seated; loosen clothing; give small sips of water if conscious and with no other injury.
  • Panic attack: speak calmly, offer to breathe slowly together, stay with them.

Afterwards: long-term follow-up

Effects don't always stop the same evening. Keep a record and see a doctor if needed.

  • Note each exposure: date, place, duration, intensity (gas in an enclosed space, repeated firing), symptoms. This log helps the doctor and may be useful later.13
  • Tear gas: cough, breathing difficulty, skin or eye irritation, headaches, digestive or menstrual cycle disorders lasting more than a few days → see a doctor and mention the exposure. Take particular care with asthma, pregnancy or chronic illness. The effects of repeated exposure are still poorly understood, but a 2023 study links several days of exposure to more cycle disorders; the participatory survey Lacrymos de sang collects testimonies.13141516
  • Ears: ringing (tinnitus), a "blocked" ear or hearing loss after an explosion → ENT specialist or A&E within 24 hours: early treatment improves the chances of recovery.17
  • Psychological: nightmares, startling, avoiding places or crowds, sleep or concentration problems more than a month after the events → talk to a doctor. The regional psychological trauma centres (Cn2r) see adults and minors.18

Afterwards: get it documented

  • Have any injury recorded by a doctor (certificate with ITT, days of incapacity), photograph injuries with a ruler or object for scale, keep clothes and projectiles.5
  • Psychological after-effects are common, sometimes days later: France Victimes listens for free on 116 006.19

Health resources in the directory · Long-term effects

In one of these situations? tear-gassed · injured · older · young or a student · afraid, but I want to act

Sources

Each note links to the source of the information. Most sources are in French. Laws change: check the date of the source and, if in doubt, ask a lawyer.

  1. French Red Cross — Protéger, alerter, secourir · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩

  2. Street medics — Les gestes à adopter en manif (booklet) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩↩↩

  3. French Red Cross — L'hémorragie · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩

  4. French Red Cross — Que faire en cas de brûlure ? · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩

  5. LDH — Que faire face aux violences policières ? (April 2026) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩

  6. Medicaction — Les gestes à adopter en manif (two-page leaflet, July 2024, in French) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. Allodocteurs — En manifestation, comment se protéger des gaz lacrymo ? · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  8. Soins post-manif (booklet) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  9. DGSCGC — First aid recommendations for teams (PSE), sheets PR 04 A 01, PR 05 C 02, PR 07 T 05 and helmet removal (FFSS copy, 2014-2018 versions; in French) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩↩

  10. French Red Cross — Recovery position: how to place someone in PLS (in French) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  11. French Red Cross — Cardiac arrest: how to do chest compressions (in French) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  12. Désarmons-les — Policing weapons update: offensive grenades, GM2L, GL-304, ASSD and GENL (2024, in French) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  13. Reporterre — Gaz lacrymogènes dangereux à long terme · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩↩

  14. Allodocteurs — Effets des gaz lacrymo sur la santé des femmes · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  15. Hassan et al. — More than tears: chemical agents and adverse reproductive health outcomes (Frontiers in Epidemiology, 2023) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  16. Lacrymos de sang — Survey on tear gas effects on the menstrual cycle · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  17. Pourquoi Docteur — Bourdonnements d'oreille : quand consulter · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  18. Cn2r — Presentation booklet (psychological trauma) · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

  19. France Victimes — 116 006 · AI-sourced on · awaiting human check ↩

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