"Dangerous profession": In France, a teenager stabbed a teacher during a lesson

In Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) in southwest France, a 52-year-old Spanish teacher died after being stabbed during class.

On the teacher of the Catholic school of St. Thomas Aquinas was attacked by a 16-year-old teenager, bursting into the classroom with a knife in the middle of the lesson. Arriving at the scene of the incident, emergency rescue service officers found the woman still alive, but they failed to help her, she died.

According to prosecutor Jerome Bourrier, the alleged perpetrator was arrested and taken into custody. The prefecture said in a statement that Bayonne’s public prosecutor, the prefect of the department, the rector of the academy and the police, Education Minister Pap Ndiaye, immediately arrived at the scene. Witnesses are being investigated and interviewed.

Since the murder in 2020 of Samuel Paty in Val-d’Oise, this is the first such case. The French government has expressed “support for the teaching community” after the death of a teacher in the workplace.

Details of the tragedy were not disclosed, Investigators believe that the attack was not a terrorist attack. French media write that, according to unconfirmed official data, the teenager may have had mental problems.