French teenager charged with murder over school stabbing

NOGENT, France: A 14-year-old schoolboy was charged with the murder of a teaching assistant stabbed to death earlier this week, prosecutors said on Thursday, as schools across France held a minute of silence.

The secondary school pupil was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly stabbing to death a school monitor -- a 31-year-old mother of a young boy -- during a bag search in the eastern town of Nogent.

Quentin G. was charged with the “murder of a person in a position of authority”, which under French law is an aggravating circumstance, and was ordered to be held in custody. This latest school attack has caused widespread shock in France, with President Emmanuel Macron denouncing what he said was a rise in violence.