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Paris
A 14-year-old girl in France was severely wounded and left in a coma after she was thrashed outside her school in the suburbs of the southern city of Montpellier. A report by the news agency AFP on Thursday (Apr 4) said that the girl was thrashed by three teenagers. The attackers were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a minor.
According to prosecutors, the victim came out of her coma but was seriously injured in the attack outside Arthur Rimbaud college on Tuesday (April 2) afternoon. One of the attackers, a 14-year-old girl, was at the same school as the victim. The other two attackers were aged 14 and 15.
Govt orders investigation into attack
French Education Minister Nicole Belloubet ordered a ministry-led investigation into the attack. “This mission will aim both to establish the reality of the facts and to establish responsibilities,” Education Minister Belloubet told local media, adding the victim was owed the truth.
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President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, expressed solidarity with the victim but urged caution in drawing conclusions about the circumstances of the attack. "At this stage, I would be wary of categorising things and I want the full truth to be established in calm and the conclusions to be drawn then," he told in televised remarks.
Victim was bullied for 2.5 years
The victim's mother told media interviews that her daughter had been bullied by a fellow pupil for two and a half years.
She accused this pupil of being the “sponsor” of the attack and claimed that this schoolgirl had been suspended for two days in June last year, in particular after having published a photo of her daughter on social networks calling for her to be raped, the report said.
The attack came at a time of heightened tensions in schools in France after dozens of messages threatening attacks were sent through an internal messaging system.
(With inputs from agencies)