In brief
A 60-year-old female art teacher was left in critical condition after being stabbed multiple times by a 14-year-old student in a classroom full of peers. The incident occurred at La Guicharde school in Sanary-sur-Mer. Authorities reported that the pupil fled the scene but was apprehended shortly after. The public prosecutor stated there appeared to be no religious or political motivations behind the attack; tensions existed between the student and teacher. The incident marks a troubling trend of violence in French schools, following several similar attacks in recent years.
A secondary school teacher in south-eastern France was left in critical condition on Tuesday after being stabbed by a 14-year-old pupil.
The 60-year-old female art teacher was stabbed three to four times in her chest in front of around 20 other students, according to a local official.
The pupil fled the classroom before being caught in the schoolyard, and was later arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Toulon's public prosecutor Raphaël Balland said the suspect did not appear to have had a religious or political motive, adding: All we know is that there had been tensions with this teacher recently, and he was angry with her.
La Guicharde school was evacuated after the attack in the early afternoon, and Wednesday's lessons were cancelled, a regional education official said.
Earlier on Tuesday, France's Education Minister Edouard Geffray said he was heading immediately to the school in Sanary-sur-Mer, a coastal area of the Var region.
My thoughts immediately go to the victim, her family, and the entire educational community, whose deep shock I share, he wrote on X.
It is the latest in a series of attacks by students in French schools in recent years.
In 2025, a 14-year-old was charged with the murder of a teaching assistant after allegedly stabbing her to death in June.
In a separate case in April, a student killed a girl and wounded several others in a knife attack in the western city of Nantes.
In 2020, teacher Samuel Paty was murdered by a Chechen refugee outside the school where he taught in a suburb of Paris, an attack which was motivated by religious extremism.
