French youth kills student, wounds three, in school knife attack

PARIS - A student killed a girl and wounded three other students in a stabbing spree on April 24 at a French private high school, prompting demands for tighter security in classes after a series of attacks.

The youth – whose identity has not been revealed but who had expressed an admiration for Adolf Hitler – was overcome by teachers after staging attacks in several classrooms, witnesses said.

He was detained by police but hospitalised after a psychiatric examination.

The suspect sent a rambling e-mail to other students just before the attacks.

“The psychiatrist who examined the suspect concluded that his state of health is incompatible with the current police custody,” Nantes prosecutor Antoine Leroy said.

In the latest case to shock France, the assailant attacked fellow students with a knife at the Notre-Dame de Toutes-Aides grammar school in the western city of Nantes.

One of the three wounded, a girl, was said to be in critical condition.

President Emmanuel Macron said the courage of the teachers who subdued the youth had prevented a higher toll. “Through their intervention, teachers likely prevented other tragedies. Their courage demands respect,” he wrote on X.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou urged “an intensification of controls in and around schools” following the attack.

He called for a response to the “endemic violence” among some young people and demanded proposals to prevent further knife attacks. Mr Bayrou said secure gates at all schools was a possibility.

AFP spoke with one student who gave an account of what happened. “I was in the cafeteria with my friends and we were told that a high school pupil had stabbed students in several classrooms,” she said, without giving her name.

“We were told not to leave the cafeteria for about 20 minutes and then we were confined to a gym.”

She said the assailant “was known to be depressed; he said he loved Hitler”.

The suspect sent a long e-mail to other students in which he said “globalisation has transformed our system into a machine to decompose humanity”. He advocated a “biological revolt” to facilitate a return to “the natural order of things, even if cruel” instead of “globalised ecocide”.

Site sealed off

The school administration sent a message to the families of the some 2,000 students who attend the school, informing them of the incident.

Students had been immediately confined inside the school, the statement added.

“In coordination with the authorities present, we are organising the gradual release of students from 3.30pm onwards in accordance with a strict protocol,” the message said.

Worried parents gathered outside of the school, which had already been cordoned off by police and some French soldiers.

One mother, known as Ludivine, 48, said she learnt that the attack had happened in her daughter’s class.

“As an anxious mother who doesn’t let her out alone, I never thought anything would happen to her at her school,” she said.

French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne in February said police would start random searches near schools for hidden knives and other weapons in a bid to deal with the rise in attacks. AFP