French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday condemned a 'senseless wave of violence' after a teaching assistant stabbed by a 15-year-old pupil outside a school in the east of the country died of her wounds.
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.
The pupil is 15 years old and did not have a criminal record.
The teaching assistant received several knife wounds just as classes were starting, and the alleged attacker, who was overpowered by gendarmes, "appears to be a student at the school," officials said.
Education Minister Elisabeth Borne was on her way to Nogent "to support the entire school community and the police".
"I commend the composure and dedication of those who acted to subdue the attacker and protect the students and staff," she posted on X (formerly Twitter).
France has in recent years seen a series of attacks on teachers and pupils by other schoolchildren.
French PM calls for tighter security in schools after deadly knife attack
At the end of April, after a fatal attack at a school in Nantes, the education ministry reported that 958 random bag checks in schools had led to the seizure of 94 knives.
After that knife attack, which left one person dead and three injured, Prime Minister François Bayrou called for "more intensive checks around and inside schools".
In March, French police began carrying out random searches for knives and other weapons concealed in bags at and around schools.
France rolls out school bag searches to combat knife violence
"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."
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denounced what she called the "normalisation of extreme violence, encouraged by the apathy of the authorities".
"Not a week goes by without a tragedy striking a school," Le Pen posted on X. "The French people have had enough and are waiting for a firm, uncompromising and determined political response to the scourge of juvenile violence."
(with AFP)
