Today's Edition
NOGENT, FRANCE (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday condemned "senseless... violence" after a 14-year-old pupil fatally stabbed a teaching assistant, the latest deadly incident at a school in the country.
The secondary school student was arrested after attacking the 31-year-old assistant with a knife during a bag search in Nogent in eastern France, officials said.
France has in recent years seen several attacks on teachers and pupils by other schoolchildren.
In March, police started random searches for knives and other weapons concealed in bags at and around schools.
The assistant at the Francoise Dolto school in Nogent was stabbed several times shortly before 8:00am, "as pupils were arriving for a visual inspection of their bags in the presence of the police", education officials said.
The suspect was taken into custody.
Emergency vehicles and police cars were parked outside the school at midday. Pupils has been sent home and classes were suspended for Tuesday and Wednesday.
"While protecting our children, a teaching assistant lost her life, the victim of a senseless wave of violence," Macron wrote on X.
"The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime," he added.
The interior ministry said on Tuesday that between March 26 and May 26, 6,000 checks led to the seizure of 186 knives.
