PARIS (Reuters) -A music teacher was stabbed in the face by a student during class in a middle school in northeastern France, and authorities have arrested a 14-year-old suspect, French media reports said on Wednesday.
The teacher was taken to hospital, local reports said.
The suspect was arrested soon after the attack, after initially fleeing the scene, local news outlet Dernieres Nouvelles d’Alsace reported. The suspect stabbed himself during his arrest and has also been taken to an area hospital, French broadcaster BFM reported.
Security in France’s schools has been the subject of intense debate in recent years. In June, then-Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said the government would test adding security gates at schools after a school aide was stabbed during a bag search.
And in 2020, the murder of teacher Samuel Paty after he showed pupils caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a class on free speech sparked a political uproar.
Elisabeth Borne, France’s education minister, said in a post on X on Wednesday that an emergency response unit had been activated to aid students and staff and that she would visit the scene immediately.
“I strongly condemn the assault of a teacher by a student at a middle school in Bas-Rhin. I express my solidarity with the teacher and the school community,” she wrote.
Jacky Wolforth, mayor of the town of Benfeld where the attack took place, said the school was evacuated and described the incident to reporters as “isolated.”
The prefecture declined to comment, and the gendarmerie and the local prosecutor did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Makini Brice; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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