RENNES (AFP) – A 12-year-old schoolgirl in Paris threatened a teacher with a knife in an apparent murder attempt at a school, prosecutors said, the latest incident in the country’s increasingly tense education system.
No one was injured in the incident during English class in the northwestern city of Rennes but prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation into attempted murder.
Born in 2011, the schoolgirl came to class armed with a large knife with the apparent intention of killing her English teacher, said Rennes prosecutor Philippe Astruc.
“During the lesson, in class, she brandished the knife at the victim who fled running, before the girl was disarmed by staff of the Hautes Ourmes junior high school,” he added.
“The pupils, shocked, were immediately moved to safety,” the education authority said.
At a press conference, Astruc showed drawings of a kitchen knife, which he said was 17 centimetres long. The girl underwent psychiatric examinations in hospital which concluded that the minor was dangerous for herself and that her condition required care in a specialised environment,” Astruc said in a statement.
The prosecutor had previously said it appeared the psychological or even psychiatric aspect seemed dominant in the act by the girl.
The suspect is the eldest of four children in a family of Mongolian origin with residency in France and who arrived in Rennes in 2012.
In October, a man stabbed his former teacher to death in the northern town of Arras.
