French teacher killed in attack by student who claimed to ‘be possessed’ | CNN

CNN
 — 

A teenage student killed a teacher at a school in southwestern France on Wednesday, authorities said.

The 50-year-old female teacher died from injuries inflicted by the attacker, a 16-year-old student, said French government spokesperson Olivier Veran.

The assailant was a teenager suffering from psychological troubles who claimed to “be possessed” after stabbing the teacher in the chest, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

BFMTV reported that, following the attack in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the assailant fled into a neighboring room where he told a teacher that a voice had told him to commit the attack. The teacher took the weapon from the student and remained with him until police arrived, BFMTV said.

The incident occurred at the Saint-Thomas d’Aquin secondary school, in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques region of southwestern France, according to the local prefecture.

Veran paid his condolences to those affected by the attack.

“I can hardly imagine the trauma that this can represent, locally and more generally on a national scale,” Veran told journalists Wednesday, adding on Twitter that there are “no words to describe the tragedy.”

The French minister of education tweeted that he will be visiting the scene “without delay.”