Female teacher is stabbed to death by 16-year-old pupil who burst into her packed classroom and attacked her before being arrested in French tourist town

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A teacher at a school in southwest France has been stabbed to death by a pupil in front of a packed class, prosecutors have confirmed.

The Spanish teacher, in her 50s, was giving the class earlier today at the Roman Catholic Saint-Thomas d’Aquin private school in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz near Bordeaux when a 16-year-old pupil burst in and attacked her with a knife. 

She was given emergency aid at the scene, but Bayonne prosecutor Jerome Bourrier told AFP she died of her wounds.

‘A Spanish lesson was taking place, when the pupil launched a frenzied attack on the teacher,’ said an investigating source. ‘She was stabbed through the chest.’ 

Local media reported the student, who was restrained by other classmates until police and emergency services arrived, 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. 

The Spanish teacher, in her 50s, was giving the class earlier today at the Roman Catholic Thomas Aquinas private school in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz (pictured)

‘My thoughts are with the family, colleagues and the pupils. I will be going to the site straight away,’ said Education Minister Pap Ndiaye. 

Senator Frédérique Espagnac, who represents the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region in which the school is set said she ‘totally condemns this act of violence against a teacher’.

‘I can barely imagine the trauma that this represents at a local level and more generally on a national scale,’ said government spokesman Olivier Veran. 

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