A 15-year-old teenager has been badly beaten in a town south of Paris and taken to hospital after a cardiac arrest, in the latest incident of school violence in France.
Thursday’s attack comes at a time of heightened tensions around French schools. Earlier this week a teenage girl was temporarily left in a coma after being beaten outside her school in the south of the country.
In the latest incident, which occurred in the town of Viry-Châtillon, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Paris, the teenager was attacked by several people as he left school on Thursday afternoon.
The public prosecutor’s office said it had opened an attempted murder and gang assault investigation.
The schoolboy went into cardiorespiratory arrest, a police source said. He was taken to Necker hospital in Paris, said Jean-Marie Vilain, the mayor of Viry-Châtillon.
The assailants “tried to massacre him”, said Vilain, calling them “the worst kind of thugs”. “This extreme violence is becoming commonplace,” he added.
Psychological help would be provided to pupils and teachers at the school, the mayor said.
According to a police source, the teenager was beaten by several people who then fled. He was found in a street “not far from his school”, prosecutors said.
The school is located in a working-class district of Viry-Châtillon, home to about 30,000 people. No arrests had been made by Thursday evening.
On Tuesday, a teenage girl was attacked outside her school in the southern city of Montpellier. Prosecutors said the girl was “seriously injured”.
Three alleged attackers have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a minor. One of the accused is a girl from the same school.
Dozens of messages threatening attacks have been sent to schools around France in recent days.