NANTES (France), April 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French police arrested a student Thursday after he allegedly killed a girl student and injured three others in a stabbing attack at his private Catholic school.
The 15-year-old attacker was overpowered by teachers at the Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides High School in Nantes before police arrived, a law enforcement spokesperson said.
“A knife attack took place this afternoon at a private school in Nantes,” Education Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote on X. “I am going there with [Interior Minister] Bruno Retailleau to express my solidarity with the victims and my support for the educational community.”
The student stabbed four students with a knife during a lunch break.
Police said that there was nothing to indicate a terrorist motive.
Students at the school told French media at the scene that they had received an email from the assailant earlier in the day with unspecified grievances.
The attacker was dressed in all black clothing and wore a helmet and balaclava, said local newspaper Ouest France.
Eye-witness accounts in local media described students running through the site, with some confined to classrooms after an alarm was sounded around lunch time.
Families were informed of the knife attack and told students had been immediately held inside the school.
Authorities helped students gradually leave the site from 15:30 local time, as some parents waited nearby.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed the casualties on X later on Thursday, and praised teachers at the scene.
He wrote: “By their intervention, the teachers undoubtedly prevented further tragedies. Their courage commands respect.”
After the attack, Prime Minister François Bayrou urged “an intensification” of checks for knives in schools.
National and local politicians visited the school after the attack, where Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters: “This tragedy is not a news item, it is a social phenomenon.”
He added that the “psychological profile” of the suspect was not known. — NNN-AGENCIES
