President Emmanuel Macron, writing on X, said the courage of the teachers who floored the youth had prevented a higher toll.
“Through their intervention, teachers likely prevented other tragedies. Their courage demands respect,” he said.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou urged “an intensification of controls in and around schools” following the attack.
He called for a response to the “endemic violence” among some youths and demanded proposals to prevent further knife attacks. Bayrou said secure gates at all schools was a possibility.
AFP spoke with one student who gave an account of what happened.
“I was in the cafeteria with my friends and we were told that a high school pupil had stabbed students in several classrooms,” she said, without giving her name.
“We were told not to leave the cafeteria for about 20 minutes and then we were confined to a gym.”
She added the assailant “was known to be depressed, he said he loved Hitler”.
The suspect sent a long email to other pupils in which he said “globalisation has transformed our system into a machine to decompose humanity”. He advocated a “biological revolt” to facilitate a return to “the natural order of things, even if cruel” instead of “globalised ecocide”.
