Police have arrested a 16-year-old pupil after a teacher was stabbed to death at a secondary school in south-west France.
The attack at the Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin, a Catholic private school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, near Bayonne, happened in a classroom when a teenager allegedly pulled a knife from his bag at about 10am on Wednesday and stabbed the 52-year-old woman once.
French media reported the pupil left the classroom after the attack and went to a neighbouring class, where he told the teacher what had happened and handed over the knife.
The woman was declared dead by the emergency services.
An investigation has been opened for alleged premeditated murder.
The French education minister, Pap Ndiaye, visited the school, which has about 1,100 pupils aged 11 – to 18, on Wednesday afternoon.
Afterwards, Ndiaye said there was nothing about the teenage suspect or the school to suggest the attack could have been prevented. “It appears that this tragedy could not have been foreseen,” Ndiaye told journalists. He said the school was known for its “calm, scholarly climate”. He announced one minute’s silence would be held in all schools on Thursday.
The public prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier confirmed the pupil had been seen by a doctor and deemed well enough to remain in custody and questioned. He said the 16-year-old was being held at Bayonne police station.
“An investigation for assassination, that is to say murder with premeditation, has been opened,” Bourrier said after visiting the school. He said the attack on the teacher on Wednesday was not thought to be linked to terrorism. Bourrier said he would give further details on Thursday after police had spoken to the teenage suspect.
The killing came more than two years after the history and geography teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was decapitated outside his secondary school in a Paris suburb in October 2020 after showing a caricature of the prophet Muhammad to his pupils.
Le Monde reported that police were concerned about the accused boy’s mental health, suggesting he may have “psychiatric problems”.
The pupil, who had no criminal record, was reported to be a high-achieving student, having received a “mention très bien” – the highest commendation – in the national Brevet exam last year.
The government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, sent a message of support to the school. “I can’t imagine how traumatic this is,” he said.
Michel, a former pupil at the school, told BFMTV: “Not a lot of things happen at that school. I was there for seven years; it’s a difficult and upsetting moment. My thoughts are with the teacher and her family and all the students who saw what happened.”
Neither the teacher, who had worked at the school since 1997, nor the pupil has been named. A spokesperson for the local education authority described the victim as an “experienced and excellent teacher … who was known to school inspectors and who shone in her subject”.
