Double armed assault in Nice primary school, suspect flagged for radicalisation
A 36-year-old parent attacked the headteacher and a teacher at the Clément Roassal school. The suspect is subject to an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) and registered on the Islamic radicalisation monitoring file.
Attempted murder in Nice primary school: what we know
A 36-year-old woman assaulted the headteacher and a teacher at the Clément Roassal primary school in Nice on Monday 2 November in the morning, according to huffingtonpost.fr. The prosecutor's office for the Alpes-Maritimes opened an investigation in the evening for "attempted murder".
The incident occurred around 9am, on the day of the return to school following the autumn half-term holidays. The mother of two children attending the school presented herself at reception to request an urgent meeting with the headteacher.
Course of the assault
Prosecutor Damien Martinelli outlined the sequence of events. Once received by the headteacher, the woman pointed a firearm in her direction whilst making accusations of sexual assault against one of her children.
She then slapped the headteacher, pulled her hair, and then holstered the weapon at her belt before slapping her again. She retrieved the weapon and pulled the trigger in the direction of the headteacher without a shot firing, specifying that she only had two bullets.
According to the prosecutor, the suspect then struck the headteacher in the face with the weapon, then produced a knife which she held to her cheek, before leaving the office approximately one hour after entering it.
Upon leaving the room, she encountered a teacher to whom she made the same accusations, slapped her and pointed the weapon in her direction before leaving the establishment. No pupils witnessed the scene, the mayor of Nice Éric Ciotti clarified.
Profile of the suspect
Arrested shortly afterwards at her home and placed in custody — which was extended in the evening — the woman indicated that she held dual Tunisian and Italian nationality and worked as a care assistant. She denies all charges of violence.
The prosecutor's office specifies that she has already been convicted twice, notably for aggravated assault in 2019. A search of her home did not recover the firearm used in the assault.
The following day, Tuesday 3 November, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez provided clarification on her administrative situation during government questions at the National Assembly. She had been in an irregular situation since 2019, placed under house arrest, and had been granted asylum in Italy in 2022. She was reporting regularly to the police station and was subject to an OQTF — obligation to leave French territory.
Nuñez clarified that she had been subject to an administrative ban from entering the territory from 2019, after being returned to Tunisia, notably for assaults and remarks made against police officers. Despite this ban, she was again arrested in France in 2023, and the measure has been renewed consistently since.
A source close to the case, confirming information from Nice-Matin, indicated that the woman is registered on the file for monitoring reports of terrorism-related radicalisation (FSPRT). She is therefore flagged for Islamic radicalisation.
Political reactions
The Interior Minister described the assault as "serious" and "unbearable and intolerable in a school of the Republic". He promised that "all consequences of this situation will be drawn" and that "everything will be done to proceed with her removal". He nevertheless stressed that she benefited from certain protections as the parent of a French child.
Éric Ciotti, mayor of Nice, visited the school in the morning of Monday. He condemned an assault "of unprecedented violence and particularly serious" which caused "a major shock throughout the Nice education community". On social media platform X, he assured that he remained "fully mobilised alongside the education community to ensure the safety of all".
The investigation, opened notably for attempted murder against a person with a public service mission, was entrusted to the judicial police in Nice.
Source: Google News LU FR