A high-schooler was fatally stabbed on Thursday, March 24, shortly after 12:15 pm, inside the private school Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides, in Nantes, western France. Three other classmates were also injured in the knife attack. All were admitted to the city's university hospital (CHU), one in critical condition. On Thursday evening, that individual remained in intensive care. "There is no guarantee" that this person is "completely out of danger," stated Education Minister Elisabeth Borne, who arrived on site with Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.

Shortly before lunch, Justin P., 16, wearing black pants and tinted glasses, according to a source close to the case, "entered a classroom looking for someone, then left, before returning to strike," stabbing 15-year-old Lorène nearly 40 times. She died due to her injuries. The perpetrator, who like her was in the equivalent of 10th grade, then entered another classroom and inflicted several stab wounds on three other teenagers, two boys and a girl.

In shock, Zineb, a student in the same class as the assailant, claimed to have seen Justin P. "at 8 am in the school," but according to her, he "did not attend classes." "At one point, we heard commotion, screams," continued the 15-year-old student. "And then voices (LEMONDE, excluding headline)