French teacher killed in attack by student who claimed to 'be possessed'

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A teenage student killed a teacher at a school in southwestern France on Wednesday, authorities said.

The 50-year-old female Spanish teacher died from injuries inflicted by the attacker, a 16-year-old student, said French government spokesperson Olivier Veran.

The assailant was a teenager suffering from psychological troubles who claimed to "be possessed" after stabbing the teacher in the chest, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

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A child looks through the entrance of a private Catholic school after a teacher has been stabbed to death by a high school student, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, southwestern France.

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BFMTV reported that, following the attack in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the assailant fled into a neighbouring room where he told a teacher that a voice had told him to commit the attack.

The teacher took the weapon from the student and remained with him until police arrived, BFMTV said.

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The incident occurred at the private Catholic school Saint-Thomas d'Aquin secondary school, in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region of southwestern France, according to the local prefecture.

People enter a private Catholic school after a teacher has been stabbed to death by a high school student, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, southwestern France

The French Education Minister, Pap Ndiaye, tweeted that he will be visiting the scene "without delay."

Veran, speaking after a weekly Cabinet meeting, paid his condolences to those affected by the attack.

"I can hardly imagine the trauma that this can represent, locally and more generally on a national scale," Veran told journalists Wednesday, adding on Twitter that there are "no words to describe the tragedy."

Police officers guard the entrance of a private Catholic school after a teacher has been stabbed to death by a high school student, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023 in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, southwestern France.

In 2020, teacher Samuel Paty was killed outside his school in suburban Paris by an 18-year-old refugee of Chechen origin who was angry that he had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class after the images were re-published by a satirical newspaper targeted in a 2015 attack.

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Source: 9News