A teaching assistant died after she was stabbed by a 15-year-old pupil outside a school in eastern France on Tuesday, June 10. The secondary school student was arrested after attacking the 31-year-old assistant with a knife during a bag search in Nogent, officials said.

The teaching assistant received several knife wounds just as classes were starting, and the alleged attacker, who did not have a criminal record and was overpowered by gendarmes, "appears to be a student at the school," education officials said. President Emmanuel Macron "senseless wave of violence."

"While protecting our children, a teaching assistant lost her life, the victim of a senseless wave of violence," Macron wrote on X, commenting on the latest in a spate of such incidents at French schools. "The nation is in mourning and the government is mobilized to reduce crime," he added.

Education Minister Elisabeth Borne was on her way to Nogent "to support the entire school community and the police." "I commend the composure and dedication of those who acted to subdue the attacker and protect the students and staff," she posted on X.

'Have had enough'

The teaching assistant was "simply doing her job by welcoming students at the entrance to the school", said Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, secretary general of the SE-UNSA teachers' union, expressing "immense pain." She added that the attack "shows that nothing can ever be completely secure and that it is prevention that needs to be focused on."

Jean-Remi Girard, president of the National Union of Secondary Schools, added: "It's impossible to be more vigilant 24 hours a day. "We can't say that every student is a danger or a threat, otherwise we'd never get out of bed in the morning."

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denounced what she called the "normalization of extreme violence, encouraged by the apathy of the authorities." "Not a week goes by without a tragedy striking a school," Le Pen said on X. "The French people have had enough and are waiting for a firm, uncompromising and determined political response to the scourge of juvenile violence."

In March, French police started random searches for knives and other weapons concealed in bags at and around schools. At the end of April, after a fatal attack at a school in Nantes, the education ministry reported that 958 random bag checks in schools had led to the seizure of 94 knives. After that knife attack, which left one person dead and three injured, Prime Minister François Bayrou called for "more intensive checks around and inside schools."