France: Teacher stabbed to death by student at private Catholic high school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz

Police officers guard the entrance of a private Catholic school after a teacher has been stabbed to death by a high school student. Credit: AP

A teacher was stabbed to death by a high school student in southwestern France, according to French police and media reports.

The student has been arrested by officers after the attack at Saint Thomas d'Aquin Catholic School, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on Wednesday, the prosecutor of Bayonne said.

A top government official, speaking anonymously, said initial details from the police suggest the teen attacker has severe mental health issues.

The student is understood to be born in 2007, making him aged between 15 and 16 years old.

The teacher, 53, taught Spanish at the private Catholic school.

A child looks through the entrance of a private Catholic school after a teacher has been stabbed to death by a high school student, Credit: AP

France's Education Minister Pap Ndiaye is to visit the school on Wednesday afternoon.

French government spokesman Olivier Veran, speaking after a weekly Cabinet meeting, expressed the government's support for the education community and said the event represents a trauma for the nation.

In 2020, teacher Samuel Paty was killed outside his school in suburban Paris by an 18-year-old refugee of Chechen origin.

They had been angry that he had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class, after the images were re-published by satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo targeted in a 2015 attack.

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