A high school student has stabbed a teacher to death in a school in the French town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
French government spokesman Olivier Véran confirmed Wednesday's attack and said the perpetrator was 16 years old.
Police attended Saint-Thomas d'Aquin school with the local prosecutor, where the student was arrested.
French newspaper Sud Ouest said the attacker entered the classroom while the teacher was giving a Spanish class and attacked her.
The teacher was in her 50s and died of cardiac arrest after emergency services arrived at the school, local media reported.
French TV station BFM said the attacker locked the classroom door and stabbed the teacher in her chest.
Local prosecutor Jerome Bourrier said that an investigation had been opened by local police for assassination and the suspect was in custody. He added that the suspect was not known to the police or the justice system.
The prosecutor will give a news conference on Thursday afternoon to give further details about the investigation.
France's Education Minister Pap Ndiaye called the attack "a tragedy of extreme gravity" and expressed his condolences.
"Today is a time of emotion and a time for solidarity," he said on a visit to the school. "The whole nation is present here to express its sorrow and emotion."
Local media reported the student might have been suffering from mental health issues. They said at this stage of the investigation there was no suggestion the incident was terror-related.
In a news conference, Mr Véran said the government would support educators across the country in the wake of the incident.
"I can hardly imagine the trauma that this represents," he said.
The school is a private, Catholic establishment near the centre of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a well known French summer holiday location.
By lunchtime, students who had been told to remain in their classrooms were able to leave the school and many were collected by their parents.
A teacher has been stabbed to death by a pupil during a lesson at a school in southwest France, government officials have said.
The victim, a 50-year-old Spanish teacher, was stabbed in the chest at Saint Thomas d'Aquin private high school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, near Bordeaux, broadcaster BFM TV reported.
A 16-year-old student at the Roman Catholic high school has been arrested and police are at the scene.
The suspect told another teacher he was possessed and heard voices that instructed him to carry out the attack, according to local media reports.
The teacher suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at around 11.30am.
Pupils fled in panic after the stabbing, according to the local newspaper Sud Ouest.
Education minister Pap Ndiaye is travelling to the scene.
"My thoughts are with the family, colleagues and the pupils," he said.
Here in Ukraine, we’ve been hearing today from
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, who says he is confident Russia will face
justice for war crimes.
Kostin said more than
68,000 war crimes had reportedly been carried out by Russia in
Ukraine since the invasion nearly a year ago.
More than 9,600 civilians, including 461 children,
had been killed, he said.
Kostin also said some 450 medical facilities had
been hit since the invasion.
“Since 24 February 2022, there isn’t a day that the
prosecutor’s office hasn’t worked,” he told reporters.
Kostin said war crimes were already being
prosecuted and that going forward 99% of the hearings would be carried out in
Ukraine, but with international support.
“We should make sure the aggressor is punished,
otherwise he will think that he can commit war crimes in other countries as
well,” he said.
Russia denies its troops intentionally target civilians or have committed atrocities in occupied areas.
There was perhaps only one truth spoken during Vladimir Putin’s two-hour state of the nation address: that Russia would suspend its participation in the New Start treaty with the US. The rest was yet another a trip down the rabbit hole into the Russian president’s parallel universe.
Those who were anticipating a major revelation in a speech that had been postponed from December were disappointed. In the absence of any groundbreaking advances on the military front, many expected Putin to finally admit that Russia was at war in Ukraine. But no, the “special military operation” is ploughing on “step by step”. Not only did he fail to offer any reassurance to those who dared hope he was considering making some concessions to the truth that the operation is not going well, but he also left the radical pro-war faction hungry for a more aggressive approach.
The president stayed within well-trodden terrain: the war was started by the west, and Russia needs to protect itself from the war-mongering decadent west that opened the door to nazism in the 1930s and where today pedophilia is the norm and God is gender neutral. He promised financial benefits to war widows and the wounded, and praised the Russian economy’s robust performance under sanctions, in a country where automobile production is down 67% year on year and biometric passports can no longer be issued because of the lack of chips. He praised the dramatic drop in unemployment while businesses are suffering from a dire lack of human resources due to the twin blows of mobilisation and exile.
Then, at the end of the speech, while some members of the audience were visibly struggling to stay awake, he delivered the punchline: Russia is suspending its participation in the New Start treaty, the only remaining arms control agreement between the US and Russia. It limits the number of nuclear warheads each side is allowed to have, and provides for bilateral inspections of each other’s nuclear facilities.
While this sounds dramatic, it only formalises a situation that has been playing out between the two nuclear superpowers since the end of 2022, when Russia cancelled a meeting with the US to discuss the revival of mutual inspections that had stopped since Covid. The official closure of the main forum for dialogue on nuclear weapons is regrettable, and increases the chances of a new nuclear arms race – but at least all sides know clearly where they stand.
Putin continues to make veiled nuclear threats, and did so again in this address when he stated that western declarations on ensuring a strategic defeat for Russia were an existential threat “to which we know how to react”. Threats to the existence of the Russian state allow for a first-use nuclear strike in Russia’s military doctrine.
Each time Putin makes these threats, the aim is clear: frighten western public opinion into pressuring governments to stop arming Ukraine and force Zelenskiy to the negotiating table.
It is impossible to know whether Putin will carry out his threats. But one thing is knowable: it is impossible to negotiate with someone who uses lies and blackmail to force his opponent’s hand, because nothing he says can be trusted. In his speech, Putin mentioned his efforts to bring the west to the negotiating table in late 2021 by the publication of two so-called security treaties – one between Russia and the US, and one between Russia and Nato. These were in fact ultimatums, insisting that Nato withdrew to its 1997 borders.
Beyond the fact that Putin knew from the outset that these conditions were not acceptable to the US or to Nato, when one discusses a treaty the presumption is that both parties were involved in negotiating it, and both parties actually knew that a treaty was being drafted. By framing his 2021 ultimatum as a fake treaty (that he knew was untenable), Putin is in fact engaging in a sophisticated disinformation campaign. It laid the ground for his relentless attempts to recast the war in Ukraine as a war with Nato – which is now the main reason why the Russian population is not rising up against the war as the body bags start to come home.
Although today’s address by Putin lacked the drama of his address to his security council last year, during which he recognised the independence of the Donestk and Luhansk republics and publicly humiliated his foreign intelligence chief, it is no less dramatic in what it portends. Putin has cemented Russia’s withdrawal from the international order – and the imprisonment of more than 140 million Russians in an empire built on lies and bloodshed.
Samantha de Bendern is an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House and a political commentator on LCI television in France
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By Laura Bicker in Hatay, Anna Foster in Adana & Oliver Slow in London
BBC News
Rescuers are once again searching for people trapped under rubble in Turkey after another earthquake hit the country, killing at least six people.
A 6.4 magnitude tremor struck near the city of Antakya near the border with Syria, where massive quakes devastated both countries on 6 February.
The earlier quakes killed 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria with tens of thousands more left homeless.
Buildings weakened by those tremors collapsed in both countries on Monday.
Turkey's disaster and emergency agency says the 6.4 earthquake occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).
This was followed by a 5.8 aftershock three minutes later and dozens of subsequent aftershocks that were not as severe.
The health minister, Dr Fahrettin Koca, said 294 people have been injured - 18 of them seriously.
It's thought the death toll has been relatively low this time because the earthquake struck in an area that was largely empty after it was badly hit by the 6 February quake.
Reports from the city of Antakya spoke of fear and panic in the streets as ambulances and rescue crews tried to reach the worst affected areas where the walls of badly damaged buildings had collapsed.
"I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet," local resident Muna al-Omar told Reuters news agency, crying as she held her seven-year-old son. She had been in a tent in a park in the city centre when the new earthquakes hit.
Ali Mazlum, 18, told AFP news agency he had been looking for the bodies of family members from the previous earthquakes when the latest tremors hit.
"You don't know what to do... we grabbed each other and right in front of us, the walls started to fall," he said.
In a visit to the southern province of Osmaniye, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan promised to hold to account anyone responsible for shoddy construction that led to deaths in the initial earthquake a fortnight ago.
"It is our duty to hold the wrongdoers accountable before the law," he said.
In the city of Adana, the latest earthquake drove people to a volleyball centre that had been converted into a rescue centre following the first earthquake.
The authorities have told the BBC they believe as many as 600 people may have arrived overnight - seeking a sturdy, ground-level building in which to take shelter.
When the quake struck, people were reported to have run out into the streets rather than staying put, reflecting the fact that there is still significant fear two weeks after the initial disaster.
In Syria, some 470 injured people are said to have visited hospitals after Monday's quakes, which were also reportedly felt in Egypt and Lebanon.
In a visit to Turkey on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100m (£83m) in humanitarian aid, saying that America would help with earthquake recovery "for as long as it takes".
It is one of several countries to have offered their help in the wake of the first earthquake.
Rescue operations have recently been wound down in all but two areas, with hopes of finding people alive fading fast.
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.
Weeks of dry winter weather have raised concerns that Italy could face another drought after last summer’s emergency, with the Alps having received less than half of their normal snowfall, according to scientists and environmental groups.
The warning comes as Venice, where flooding is normally the primary concern, faces unusually low tides that are making it impossible for gondolas, water taxis and ambulances to navigate some of its famous canals.
The problems in Venice are being blamed on a combination of factors – the lack of rain, a high pressure system, a full moon and sea currents.
Italian rivers and lakes are suffering from a severe lack of water, the Legambiente environmental group said on Monday, with attention focused on the north of the country.
The Po, Italy’s longest river which runs from the Alps in the north-west to the Adriatic has 61% less water than normal at this time of year, it added in a statement.
In July last year, Italy suffered its worst drought for 70 years and declared a state of emergency in the areas surrounding the Po, which accounts for roughly a third of the country’s agricultural production.
“We are in a water deficit situation that has been building up since the winter of 2020-2021,” climate expert Massimiliano Pasqui from Italian scientific research institute CNR was quoted as saying by daily Corriere della Sera.
“We need to recover 500mm in the north-western regions: we need 50 days of rain,” he said.
Water levels on Lake Garda in northern Italy have fallen to record lows, making it possible to reach the small island of San Biagio on the lake via an exposed pathway.
An anticyclone has been dominating the weather in western Europe for 15 days, bringing mild temperatures more normally seen in late spring.
Latest weather forecasts do however signal the arrival of much-needed precipitation and snow in the Alps in coming days.
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By Laura Bicker in Hatay, Anna Foster in Adana & Oliver Slow in London
BBC News
Rescuers are once again searching for people trapped under rubble in Turkey after another earthquake hit the country, killing at least six people.
A 6.4 magnitude tremor struck near the city of Antakya near the border with Syria, where massive quakes devastated both countries on 6 February.
The earlier quakes killed 44,000 people in Turkey and Syria with tens of thousands more left homeless.
Buildings weakened by those tremors collapsed in both countries on Monday.
Turkey's disaster and emergency agency says the 6.4 earthquake occurred at 20:04 local time (17:04 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).
This was followed by a 5.8 aftershock three minutes later and dozens of subsequent aftershocks that were not as severe.
The health minister, Dr Fahrettin Koca, said 294 people have been injured - 18 of them seriously.
It's thought the death toll has been relatively low this time because the earthquake struck in an area that was largely empty after it was badly hit by the 6 February quake.
Reports from the city of Antakya spoke of fear and panic in the streets as ambulances and rescue crews tried to reach the worst affected areas where the walls of badly damaged buildings had collapsed.
"I thought the earth was going to split open under my feet," local resident Muna al-Omar told Reuters news agency, crying as she held her seven-year-old son. She had been in a tent in a park in the city centre when the new earthquakes hit.
Ali Mazlum, 18, told AFP news agency he had been looking for the bodies of family members from the previous earthquakes when the latest tremors hit.
"You don't know what to do... we grabbed each other and right in front of us, the walls started to fall," he said.
In a visit to the southern province of Osmaniye, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan promised to hold to account anyone responsible for shoddy construction that led to deaths in the initial earthquake a fortnight ago.
"It is our duty to hold the wrongdoers accountable before the law," he said.
In the city of Adana, the latest earthquake drove people to a volleyball centre that had been converted into a rescue centre following the first earthquake.
The authorities have told the BBC they believe as many as 600 people may have arrived overnight - seeking a sturdy, ground-level building in which to take shelter.
When the quake struck, people were reported to have run out into the streets rather than staying put, reflecting the fact that there is still significant fear two weeks after the initial disaster.
In Syria, some 470 injured people are said to have visited hospitals after Monday's quakes, which were also reportedly felt in Egypt and Lebanon.
In a visit to Turkey on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $100m (£83m) in humanitarian aid, saying that America would help with earthquake recovery "for as long as it takes".
It is one of several countries to have offered their help in the wake of the first earthquake.
Rescue operations have recently been wound down in all but two areas, with hopes of finding people alive fading fast.
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.
