A primary school in southern France is in shock after a teacher was stabbed to death in front of her young pupils by a student's mother described as having "psychiatric problems".
After what Education Minister Benoit Hamon described as an "appalling" crime, the 47-year-old assailant fled to her home but was quickly detained by police.
The attack on the 34-year-old teacher took place around 9 am (5pm AEST) as classes began on the last day of term at Albi's Edouard Herriot primary school, which is attended by 284 students aged from three to 11.
Officials said the mother showed up in the classroom with a knife and stabbed the teacher, Fabienne Terral-Calmes, a mother of two young girls, in front of her horrified pupils.
The teacher died at the scene while being treated by emergency services.
The assailant's young daughter had been enrolled at the school for about a month-and-a-half, officials said, but it was unclear if the girl was in the classroom at the time of the stabbing.
"This is an appalling act, a murder, a murder of a teacher in her classroom in front of her students, by a woman who... seems to suffer from significant psychiatric problems," Hamon said after arriving in Albi.
"I want to pay hommage to the memory of Fabienne Terral-Calmes. She was 34 years old, a school teacher and mother to two little girls, Romane and Adele," Hamon said.
"They have lost their mother and the national education system has lost a wonderful teacher."
The incident comes amid concerns in France over assaults on teachers, with a study released on Thursday saying that education workers were twice as likely to be threatened and insulted than people in other professions.
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