A 31-year-old teaching assistant has died after being stabbed by a 14-year-old pupil during a bag search at a school in north-east France, in an attack that President Emmanuel Macron described as a 'senseless wave of violence'. The incident occurred outside a middle school in Nogent, in the Haute-Marne department, at the start of the school day.
The suspect, who was overpowered by gendarmes and taken into police custody, was not previously known to authorities. According to education officials, he 'appeared to be a student at the school' and had served as an anti-bullying representative. Elisabeth Borne, the education minister, said the boy came from a family where both parents worked and had not shown any particular difficulties before the attack.
The victim, a former hairdresser who had been working at the school since September, sustained multiple knife wounds. She was the mother of a young boy, and a cousin described her as 'a very cheerful, very kind person'. About 300 pupils at the school were locked down during the arrest.
President Macron wrote on social media: 'While protecting our children, a teaching assistant lost her life, the victim of a senseless wave of violence. The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilised to reduce crime.' Borne praised those who subdued the attacker and protected students and staff.
The attack comes amid heightened concerns about knife violence in French schools. In March, police began random searches for knives and other weapons in and around schools. After a fatal stabbing in Nantes in April, Prime Minister François Bayrou called for more intensive checks. The education ministry reported 94 knives seized from 958 random bag checks after the Nantes attack.
