French authorities say a 15-year-old student stabbed a school employee to death during a bag check

CTV News

2 days ago

The French flag flies Monday, Dec. 23, 2024 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
PARIS — A French middle school employee was stabbed to death by a 15-year-old student during a bag check Tuesday at their school east of Paris, the national gendarme service said. The student was detained.
A police officer helping with the bag checks was slightly injured during the arrest, the gendarme service said. The attack at the Francoise Dolto School in Nogent was being investigated.
'While she was looking after our children in Nogent, an educational assistant lost her life, a victim of senseless violence,' French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X. 'The nation is in mourning and the government mobilized to bring crime down.'
Such fatal attacks have been rare in France but concerns about school violence have been on the rise.
The Education Ministry introduced bag checks this year at some schools to reduce it. Over a two-month period this spring, 186 knives were seized during school bag checks and 32 people detained, the interior minister's office said Tuesday.
In April, a high school student stabbed four other students at his school in western France, killing one and wounding three others before being arrested, police said.
The Associated Press