Police report that a 14-year-old student fatally stabbed a teaching assistant during a routine bag search at a middle school in Haute-Marne.
According to Haute-Marne police, a middle school student in France committed a fatal knife attack on a teaching assistant during a routine bag check on Tuesday.
The teacher was transported to a hospital but later died from her injuries. According to the local daily Journal de Haute-Marne (JHM), an officer involved in the 14-year-old attacker’s arrest was also injured.
This attack occurs amidst widespread concern over rising knife crime in France, prompting police to increase random bag searches in schools to combat the growing number of incidents.
Local police stated in a press release on Tuesday that “A student drew a knife and seriously wounded a teaching assistant” during bag checks at Dolto Middle School in Nogent. “The attacker, apprehended by police officers at the scene, is currently in police custody at the Nogent gendarmerie.”
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack on X on Tuesday as part of “a senseless wave of violence.”
French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou wrote on X that the victim leaves behind a young son. “Our thoughts are with her little boy, his family, his loved ones, and the entire educational community,” he stated.
Bayrou wrote, “The threat of bladed weapons among our children has become critical,” emphasizing the need to make the problem “a public enemy.”
In April, following a mass stabbing at a private school in Nantes that killed a teenage girl and injured three students, Bayrou called for “more intensive checks around and inside schools.”
The French Education Ministry reported that between late March and late April, 958 random bag checks resulted in the seizure of 94 knives in schools across France.
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