A 14-year-old secondary school student has been arrested after stabbing an art teacher at a school in southern France, leaving the 60-year-old woman in critical condition.
The attack occurred on Tuesday at La Guicharde secondary school in Sanary-sur-Mer. According to the public prosecutor in Toulon, Raphael Balland, the student stabbed the teacher at least three times. He has been taken into custody on suspicion of attempted murder.
Balland said early investigations have found no religious or political motive behind the attack. “What we know at this stage is that there had been tensions between the pupil and the teacher, and that he was angry with her,” he told reporters.
France’s education minister, Edouard Geffray, travelled to the school following the incident to assess the situation and support the school community. In a post on X, he expressed solidarity with the victim and those affected. “My thoughts are with the teacher, her family and the entire educational community, who are deeply shocked,” he said.
Presidential aides also confirmed that President Emmanuel Macron is being regularly briefed on the teacher’s condition.
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The incident adds to a worrying trend of violence in French schools. In recent years, there have been several attacks involving students and educators. Last year, a 14-year-old boy was charged with the murder of a teaching assistant who was stabbed to death during a bag search in the eastern town of Nogent. In another case in April, a student killed a fellow pupil and injured others during a stabbing attack in Nantes.
Many teachers continue to recall the 2020 killing of history and geography teacher Samuel Paty, who was murdered after showing his students caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, an event that profoundly shook France’s education system.
Authorities say investigations into Tuesday’s stabbing are ongoing as the nation once again confronts concerns over safety in schools.
