A teacher was today stabbed to death by a pupil who rambled about being "possessed by the devil" in a frenzied knife attack in front of a packed class at a school in France.
The bloodbath unfolded this morning at the Roman Catholic Thomas Aquinas private school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on the southwestern Atlantic coast.
"A Spanish lesson was taking place, when the pupil launched a frenzied attack on the teacher," said an investigating source.
The murdered female Spanish teacher was in her 50s and had taught at the school "for a number of years," said a source at St Thomas Aquinas. "She was well liked and respected."
The 16-year-old pupil was restrained before police and emergency service arrived, but it was too late to save the life of the teacher, who succumbed to his injuries.
The private school, which has around 1000 students, was placed in lockdown immediately after the attack, until the pupil attacker was taken away by police.
"She was stabbed through the chest," said the source, without naming either the attacker or the victim.
The attacker rose from his seat during classtime, holding a bladed weapon between sheets of paper, one student told local media.
He had blocked the door of the classroom before lunging from his seat and burying the 10cm knife into the educator's sternum, reports France Bleu Pays Basque.
The boy then left the classroom, still holding the massive blade as he hid in a nearby room.
When police found him, the boy - who was unknown to the police but had a history of mental health issues - was found making incoherent remarks, claiming he was "possessed by the devil", an investigating source said.
It's understood that the young man also claimed to be hearing voices, which were telling him to slaughter his teacher.
"Other pupils are aware that the attacker had psychological problems," said the source.
A pupil who watched the killing happen said the attacker "was normally very calm, but had been taking medication for stress."
The witness told the local Sud Ouest newspaper: "We saw him take something out of his bag, an object surrounded by paper.
"Then he headed for the door. We thought he wanted to go to the bathroom. In fact, he blocked access.
"The teacher was then at the blackboard, near this door. He then turned around and struck a blow with what looked like a screwdriver, at the level of the throat. We heard a scream, then nothing".
There was then an "immediate panic" as "everyone tried to get out through a door leading to another class".
"Others were so scared they were tempted to jump through the window. We did not know if all the students had been able to escape.
"Before exiting, we saw the assailant remain standing, his weapon in his hand – he was holding it up.
"We passed a senior teacher in the hallway and we told him to run. Other classes had been alerted.
"Apparently, the students were quickly brought to safety. We wanted to get out of the campus – to get as far away as possible."
He said that specialist units had been drafted in to deal with the ‘psychological wellbeing’ of all those connected with the school.
Prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier said: "I can confirm that there was indeed a knife attack and that the victim has just died."
Though details of the victim are yet to be confirmed officially, they are said to be in their 50s.
The incident was announced on Twitter, where Pyrénées-Atlantiques said "police are on site".
The pupil stabbed the teacher in the sternum and when authorities arrived, he had gone into cardiac arrest.
France's Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye is enroute to the area.
Pyrénées-Atlantiques Senator Frédérique Espagnac said she "totally condemns this act of violence against a teacher" and has sent support to the teacher and his family.
Local politician Vincent Bru said he was "horrified" after hearing of the incident, adding that the district is "not known to be violent".
The area is also "renowned" for its "quality of education", he said, adding: "I think of all the teaching staff, who must be scared by this news".
Government spokesman Olivier Véran said politicians give their support to the "educational community" as he told reporters: "I can hardly imagine the trauma that this can represent.
Just over years ago – on October 16 2020 – history and geography teacher Samuel Paty was stabbed and beheaded near his school in the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris.
The perpetrator was 18-year-old Abdoullakh Anzorov, a Russian refugee from Chechnya who was killed by police soon after the murder.
Anzorov had no connection with Paty or the school, but had travelled from his home in Normandy to kill the teacher after watching a video posted by a pupil’s father who was angry that Paty had shown students images of the prophet of Isla
