Paris, Apr 24 (AP) A student at a French high school stabbed four other students at his school on Thursday, killing at least one and injuring three others before being arrested, police said.

The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear.

A national police official said the attack occurred at the private Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides High School in Nantes on France’s Atlantic coast.

The student stabbed four people with a knife during a lunch break before teachers subdued him, and he was later taken in by police, the official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to national police policy.

Fatal attacks are rare in French schools.

Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said on X that she is heading to the school with Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to show ”solidarity with victims and the school community”.

Images from the scene showed police and armed military forces surrounding the school as the investigation got underway.

An official at the school, which is part of a complex housing a primary and middle school, would not comment on what happened, saying the school is concentrating on caring for the students who were on campus at the time. (AP) PY PY