An unaccompanied minor has been arrested in France after stabbing a teacher multiple times and attempting to burn down the reception center in which he was being accommodated.
The incident occurred on Wednesday in La Tour, a town situated in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France.
According to information provided by the Bonneville public prosecutor’s office and cited by Le Parisien newspaper, the 17-year-old knife-wielding attacker took two educators at the reception center hostage and barricaded himself in his room.
Public prosecutor Karline Bouisset confirmed to French media that the teen then set his bed on fire “before stabbing one of his two educators several times, seriously injuring him.”
Police responders were dispatched to the scene and managed to break down the door to the attacker’s room but were initially unsuccessful in apprehending the knifeman by using a taser. One of the officers proceeded to “use a service weapon given the dangerousness of the situation,” according to the prosecutor, causing serious injury to the migrant teen.
Both the attacker and his victim are in a serious condition and were immediately transferred to separate hospitals where they remain receiving treatment.
The blaze initiated by the teen spread to two floors of the reception center but was able to be brought under control, the prosecutor added. No casualties have been reported.
The name and nationality of the perpetrator have not been released by the authorities, but he is understood to be an unaccompanied minor who came to France and was provided with accommodation at the center.
An investigation has been opened for attempted murder of persons entrusted with a public service mission, kidnapping, threats with a weapon, and arson.
A further investigation has been launched by the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN) into the officer who discharged his firearm to ascertain whether such a measure was considered to be reasonable force given the circumstances.
