a schoolboy arrested in Chenôve after threatening the principal of the establishment with a knife

The police found a letter on the teenager in which he announced his intention to kill and take hostages, France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté learned.

A student from a college in the suburbs of Dijon (Côte-d’Or) was arrested on Friday March 15 afternoon after threatening the principal of the establishment with a knife without hurting her, the rectorate announced.

The manager of the Edouard-Herriot college managed to escape from her office, triggering the alarm, said the rector of the Dijon academy, Pierre N’Gahane. The police, who were intervening nearby, were able to arrest “very quickly” the third grader, he added. The use of a Taser was necessary to arrest the student, who was still armed with the knife, France Télévisions learned from a police source.

A letter referring to the 2015 attacks

The teenager had requested a meeting with the principal of the Edouard-Herriot college, in Chenôve, a sensitive suburb of Dijon, after his exclusion from the establishment for disciplinary problems. This student had already been excluded from another school before being admitted to Herriot college, according to the rector.

After threatening the principal, he tried to return to his class but the latter was confined like the entire establishment, as is the procedure following the triggering of an alarm of this type. With the classroom door closed, the student remained in the hallway before finally being arrested.

The police found a letter on the teenager in which he announced his intention to kill and take hostages, France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté learned. The mail “did reference to the 2015 attacks”also told France Bleu Bourgogne the public prosecutor Olivier Caracotch.

The teenager taken into custody

The teenager was placed in police custody in an investigation for “death threats, violence in a school establishment and intrusion of a weapon into a school establishment”, specified the prosecutor. “Advised of the facts, the national anti-terrorism prosecution does not retain its jurisdiction, excluding at this stage any criminal qualification of a terrorist nature”said the Dijon prosecutor’s office on Friday evening.

A medical-psychological cell will be open on Saturday to accommodate students who have been confined. On Monday, the unit will be set up for the entire establishment.

The PS mayor of Chenôve, in Côte-d’Or, Thierry Falconnet, welcomed on franceinfo “the courage and great composure of the staff of the establishment”. The Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet, addressed on her “support” to the college administration, requesting “the strongest sanctions” For “all threats that will be made against staff”.