A knife attacker in the southern French city of Antibes wounded a teacher and a student at a horticultural college Wednesday, September 10, police said, the latest attack to hit an educational establishment in the country. The victims are a 16-year-old student, who suffered minor injuries, and a 52-year-old teacher, who was seriously injured, local officials said. The assailant was taken into custody, police confirmed.
The mayor of Antibes, Jean Leonetti, told daily Nice-Matin that the assailant was a "former student" of the school. "He was subdued thanks to the courage of the principal [who] spoke with him while he was armed," the mayor said to the newspaper.
"Thank you to the national and municipal police, as well as the fire brigade, for their rapid response and exemplary commitment in this extremely tense situation, symbolic of the tragic rise in violence in our country," Eric Pauget, a MP who represents Antibes, posted on X.
Outgoing agriculture minister Annie Genevard announced on X that she was going "immediately to the scene." "Schools must remain a republican sanctuary: violence has no place there and will never be tolerated," she wrote.
France has seen several knife attacks on teachers and students in recent years. Last week, a teacher was wounded by a colleague who stabbed him twice during an altercation in the staff room of a high school in Martigues, northwest of the southern port city of Marseille.
In June, a 14-year-old secondary school student stabbed to death a 31-year-old teaching assistant in the eastern town of Nogent. In April, a student killed a 15-year-old girl and wounded three other people at a college in the western city of Nantes.
In March, police began carrying out random searches for concealed weapons in and around schools.