U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said protests across France is about Islam wanting to take over and not a push for reforms in education.

Mr Trump in a social media post attributed the lingering swirling protests to out of control mass migration and Islam pushing to take over French territory.

“What’s happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration,” Mr Trump said. “This isn’t about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!”

The nationwide protests, championed by students demanding education reforms, had spread to 40 cities in France. The protests took a violent turn on Tuesday as police cracked down on protesters with tear gas. 

Thousands of students and activists hit the streets of Nantes, Marseille, and Lyon on Tuesday with placards and banners bearing inscriptions such as ‘They don’t really care about us’ and ‘Survive or study.’ 

Similarly, thousands of students marched across Lyon, Rennes and Strasbourg, lighting and burning fires despite police firing tear gas to disperse them.

Ongoing protests amounted to “The heaviest toll in decades paid by the school system,” French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told the parliament on Tuesday.

He lamented that at least 215 teenagers, 85 school staff and over 700 police had been injured since the protests broke out.

“Ultra-violence has arrived at the doorstep of high schools. It must be condemned unconditionally. In a functioning democracy, we cannot allow any room for tolerance of violence,” Mr Lecornu said. “Burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings.”

France’s interior ministry noted that at least 6,100 people had been arrested since the protests began two weeks ago.