A teacher at a private Catholic school in France was stabbed to death in front of a packed class by a pupil who claimed to be ‘possessed by the devil’.
Agnès Lassalle, 54, died after the 16-year-old plunged a knife through her heart during a Spanish lesson on Wednesday morning.
Her killer – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was charged with premeditated murder and taken into custody.
Ms Lassalle, who was married and who had been on staff at the school for 26 years, was heard to briefly scream during the attack at the Thomas Aquinas School in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, before collapsing in a heap.
The attacker then stood calmly over Ms Lassalle’s body, waiving the knife, as other pupils ran away in panic.
Today’s fatal attack took place at Saint Thomas d’Aquin Roman Catholic private school near Bordeaux
Police officers guard the entrance of Saint Thomas d’Aquin school
Concerned parents gather outside the school where the lethal attack took place this morning
The Spanish teacher, in her 50s, was giving the class earlier today at the Roman Catholic Saint-Thomas d’Aquin private school (pictured) in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz
After his arrest, it emerged he was only transferred to Thomas Aquinas in September, after other schools rejected him because of his psychological problems.
Defending the school’s Christian ethics, Marc Aillet, the Bishop of Bayonne, said: ‘He was looking for a new establishment and Saint Thomas Aquinas welcomed him.’
Eyewitnesses to the attack meanwhile told how they watched the bloodbath unfold soon after 10am in the town, which is on France’s southwest Atlantic coast.
‘He stuck a large knife in her chest without saying anything,’ said a pupil identified as Ines, 16.
‘I didn’t see him get up from his desk, but I saw him facing the teacher, and very calmly approach her.’
Another pupil who watched the killing happen said the attacker ‘was normally very calm, but had been taking medication for stress’.
He said: ‘We saw him take something out of his bag, an object surrounded by paper.
‘Then he headed for the door. We thought he wanted to go to the bathroom. In fact, he blocked access.
‘The teacher was then at the blackboard, near this door. He then turned around and struck a blow with what looked like a screwdriver, at the level of the throat. We heard a scream, then nothing.’
Police and prosecutors later confirmed the weapon was a knife, and the lethal wound was to Ms Lassalle’s chest.
There was then an ‘immediate panic’ as ‘everyone tried to get out through a door’ leading to another class, said the witness.
‘Others were so scared they were tempted to jump through the window. We did not know if all the students had been able to escape,’ the pupil continued.
‘Before exiting, we saw the assailant remain standing, his weapon in his hand – he was holding it up.
‘We passed a senior teacher in the hallway and we told him to run. Other classes had been alerted.
‘Apparently, the students were quickly brought to safety. We wanted to get out of the campus – to get as far away as possible.’
Ms Lassalle, who was married with no children, had joined the school as a Spanish teacher in 1997 and was ‘much loved and highly respected as a teacher,’ said a colleague.
France’s Education Minister Pap Ndiaye visited the school and said a ‘total of 90 pupils were receiving psychological counselling’.
Mr Ndiaye said there would be a minute silence for Ms Lassalle at all French schools at 3pm on Thursday.
Scared pupils stand outside the Saint Thomas D’Aquin private school in southwestern France after they were evacuated amid a knife attack on a teacher
Saint-Thomas d’Aquin school is located in Saint Jean de Luz, a popular seaside town near Bordeaux
A portrait of French teacher Samuel Paty is displayed on the facade of the Opera Comedie in Montpellier on October 21, 2020, during a national homage to the teacher who was beheaded for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed in his civics class
Bayonne prosecutors said an investigation had been opened for ‘premediated murder’ and that the alleged killer ‘was in custody’.
Just over years ago – on October 16 2020 – history and geography teacher Samuel Paty was stabbed and beheaded near his school in the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris.
The perpetrator was 18-year-old Abdoullakh Anzorov, a Russian refugee from Chechnya who was killed by police soon after the murder.
Anzorov had no connection with Paty or the school, but had travelled from his home in Normandy to kill the teacher after watching a video posted by a pupil’s father who was angry that Paty had shown students images of the Prophet Mohamed.
