French police have used 4×4 vehicles paid for by British taxpayers to charge at student protesters during the school protests that have swept the country.

The French government has confirmed that an investigation has been launched into why the cars, funded by the UK government specifically to prevent asylum seekers crossing the Channel, were used during a protest involving school students in Dunkirk.

School protests have been taking place across France for a third week with an estimated 160,000 people involved, with protesters raising concerns about crumbling schools and teacher shortages. Demonstrators have criticised policing tactics after teargas was fired at protesters in two areas.

The incident involving the UK-funded 4×4, a land cruiser known as Masstech VEZI (Vehicule d’Eclairage de Zone d’Intervention), was reported by French media outlet BFM TV on 10 October. The report included footage of the VEZI driving at speed, reversing backwards then driving forwards again with a bin caught under the vehicle’s front wheel and dragged along. Students can be heard screaming and scattering from the path of the vehicle.

According to reports, a 14-year-old girl was injured by the vehicle and was taken to hospital, sustaining a haematoma. She was later discharged from hospital. She is now recovering, but she told reporters that what happened to her was “unacceptable”.

The VEZI was earmarked for UK-funded operations on French beaches to stop asylum seekers boarding dinghies, part of an Anglo-French border agreement signed in January 2018 and known as the Sandhurst treaty.

This treaty specifies cooperation between France and the UK in combating irregular immigration and secures UK financial support for French efforts through the “Sandhurst funds”. These funds enable France’s National Gendarmerie (police service) to acquire additional resources such as all-terrain vehicles suited to dunes and beaches, including the VEZIs, which are reinforced with grilles.

According to a recent French parliamentary cross-party inquiry into Anglo-French border agreements known as Le Touquet, nine of these specialised VEZI vehicles have been bought under the terms of the Sandhurst treaty. The inquiry report states that to be eligible for Sandhurst funding the equipment must contribute directly to combatting illegal migration in the UK.

A spokesperson from the office of Laurent Nuñez, France’s minister of the interior, when asked why a vehicle funded by the UK and specifically earmarked for border control was used to counter a schools protest, said: “We can confirm the opening of an investigation into this.”

Sources close to the investigation said: “I don’t think the British are aware that their money is being used to beat French kids.”

Another expressed concern about the expanding militarisation of French policing to support authoritarian policies.

A spokesperson for Utopia 56, a French association that provides support to asylum seekers in northern France, said: “In Dunkirk, the 4×4 that ploughed into high school students during the protests is a vehicle funded by the British Sandhurst fund – money earmarked for combating Channel crossings. The practice of using 4x4s to chase people in the student protest is the same one used on the beaches.

“Disproportionate force is employed to silence, intimidate, and deter. The repressive tactics being tested at the border to prevent crossings should serve as a warning to everyone. These are surveillance, control and repression methods that will be replicated in other contexts. The incident involving the vehicle in the student protest is proof of this.”

The UK Home Office declined to comment.