A high school student has reportedly stabbed a Spanish teacher to death in a school in the French town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
Local prosecutor Jerome Bourrier confirmed the attack to news agency AFP, with local media saying the incident took place in a class on Wednesday morning.
Authorities have confirmed that police are on the scene with the local prosecutor.
The student has been arrested.
The teacher was in her fifties and died of cardiac arrest when emergency services arrived on the scene, local media said.
French newspaper Sud Ouest said the attacker entered the classroom while the Spanish teacher was giving a class and attacked her.
The French education minister, Pap Ndiaye said in a tweet that his thoughts were with the teacher’s “family, colleagues and pupils”.
He said he was on his way to the school “straight away”.
Local media reported the student may have been suffering from mental health issues. They said at this at this stage of the investigation there was no suggestion the incident was terror related.
French government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, said in a press conference the government would support educators across the country in the wake of the incident.
“I can hardly imagine the trauma that this can represent,” he said.
COMMENTS