Deadly knife attack at French school

A 14-year-old student stabbed an educator during a routine bag search in a Haute-Marne middle school, police have said.

A French middle school student launched a deadly knife attack on a teaching assistant during a routine bag check on Tuesday, Haute-Marne police have said.

The teacher was rushed to hospital but died later from her wounds. An officer involved in apprehending the 14-year old attacker was also injured in the incident, local daily Journal de Haute-Marne (JHM) wrote, citing a correspondent on the scene.

The attack comes amid a widespread concern with escalating knife crime in the country. French police have been stepping up random bag searches in schools to battle the increasing number of incidents.

“A student pulled out a knife and seriously injured a teaching assistant,” while officers were carrying bag checks at Dolto Middle School in Nogent, local police said in a press release on Tuesday. “The attacker, neutralized by the police officers present at the scene, is currently in police custody at the Nogent gendarmerie.”

In a statement on X on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack as part of “a senseless wave of violence.”

The victim is survived by a young son, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou wrote on X. “Our thoughts go out to her little boy, his family, his loved ones, and the entire educational community,” he wrote.

“The threat of bladed weapons among our children has become critical,” Bayrou wrote. He stressed the importance of making the problem “a public enemy.”

In April, after a teenage girl was killed and three students wounded in a mass stabbing at a private school in Nantes, Bayrou called for “more intensive checks around and inside schools.”

The French Education Ministry reported that 958 random bag checks resulted in 94 knives being seized in schools throughout France between late March and late April.