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A teaching assistant has been stabbed to death during a student bag search outside school gates in Nogent in northeastern France.
French police are questioning a 14-year-old student following the 31-year-old’s death on Tuesday.
The teenager was being held at the gendarmerie of Nogent while being questioned, the Haute-Marne Prefecture said.
"While watching over our children in Nogent, an educational assistant lost her life, the victim of a senseless wave of violence," President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X.
"The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime," he added.
The Chaumont public prosecutor, Denis Devallois, said the alleged suspect had stabbed the school assistant several times with a knife.
"The threat of bladed weapons among our children has become critical. It is up to us to make this widespread scourge a public enemy," Prime Minister Francois Bayrou wrote on X.
Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said she was on her way to Nogent "to support the entire school community and law enforcement" following the “terrible tragedy”.
"I commend the composure and commitment of those who acted to restrain the attacker and protect the students and staff," she said on X.
