'Possessed' pupil stabs teacher to death in France

A teacher was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old pupil on Wednesday at a Roman Catholic high school in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz in southwestern France, government officials and the local prosecutor's office said.

The victim was a Spanish-language teacher, a woman of around 50, local lawmaker Vincent Bru said.

Police arrested the pupil, who told another teacher he was possessed and had heard voices that instructed him to attack the teacher, a source with knowledge of the investigation told reporters.

Bru declined to give details on the attack but confirmed that "this does not seem to have any terrorist cause at all."

"It's a shock," he said of the attack, speaking in a phone interview with Reuters, adding that the school was in a quiet area and had had no security issues so far.

Pupils fled in panic after the stabbing, local newspaper Sud Ouest said, citing two students who were in the classroom and witnessed the attack.

The attacker stood up during a lesson and walked to the door, before turning around and stabbing the teacher, they said.

BFM TV gave a similar account, and said the attacker talked to a teacher in the classroom next door, was calm and agreed to hand over his weapon.

Officials at the prosecutor's office and the education ministry declined to respond to questions about the details of the attack, saying the prosecutor would do so shortly, at a news conference.

Education Minister Pap Ndiaye, who was heading to the site of the attack, tweeted: "My thoughts are with the family, colleagues and the pupils."

Reuters