A Spanish teacher at a private Catholic school in Saint-Jean-de Luz in southwestern France has died after being stabbed by a 16-year-old pupil, Bayonne prosecutors said. “I can confirm that there was an attack with a knife and that the 50-year-old victim has just died,” said the prosecutor, Jérôme Bourrier, quoted by France Presse.
The student, a young man with a clean record, was stopped by the police. The Minister of Education, Pap Ndiaye, is expected on site in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the French Basque Country, not far from the border with Spain and has already written his disbelief and condolences on his social networks .
At 11.30 today the confirmation of the professor’s death from the consequences of fatal injuries to the sternum.
Olivier Véran, government spokesman at the end of the Council of Ministers, wanted to recall the ingenious disappearance by bringing his “support to the educational community as a whole, including teachers, school leaders, parents of students”: “I can hardly imagine the trauma that this can represent, at a local and more generally national level».
The attacker was stopped and taken into custody and, according to the testimony of a student collected by France Bleu Pays Basque, the attacker would have stood up in full run, holding a blade hidden in the card. He allegedly first blocked the door to the room before walking towards the teacher and stabbing her in the chest. The other students, terrified, immediately fled the classroom.
According to information provided by BFM TV, the young man then left the courtroom, still carrying his 10 cm long blade, to take refuge in a nearby courtroom. It is then the teacher present in the classroom who would have taken care of him before the arrival of the police. This teenager, suffering from psychological disorders and unknown to law enforcement, would later make incoherent remarks, saying he heard voices and was possessed.
Interviewed by BFM TV, the Modem deputy for Pyrénées-Atlantiques Vincent Bru said he was “horrified” and “dismayed”. He deplored the tragic event, which took place in a “neighborhood that is not known to be violent”, in an institute “renowned in Saint-Jean-de-Luz for the quality of its education”.