Muslim girl badly hurt after beating outside French school

The French government on Thursday launched an investigation after a 14-year-old Muslim girl was temporarily left comatose after being beaten outside her school by three other teenagers in the south of France.

The three alleged attackers, including a girl who was at the same school as the victim in the suburbs of the southern city of Montpellier, have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a minor.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions around French schools after dozens of messages threatening attacks were sent through an internal messaging system.

The victim, named as Samara, has now come out of her coma but was "seriously wounded" in the attack on Tuesday afternoon outside the Arthur Rimbaud college in the La Mosson-La Paillade district, a low-income suburb with many residents of immigrant origin, prosecutors said.

One of the accused is a girl from the same school, also 14, who was arrested on Wednesday and admits to having beaten the victim, Montpellier prosecutors said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The two other minors arrested are aged 14 and 15.

Education Minister Nicole Belloubet ordered an investigation by inspectors from her ministry who would have eight working days starting from Friday to report back on the circumstances surrounding the attack.

"This mission will aim both to establish the reality of the facts and to establish responsibilities," she told BFMTV, adding that Samara was owed "the truth".

Her mother, Hassiba, has said in media interviews that her daughter had been bullied by a fellow pupil for two-and-a-half years, raising the possibility this could have been over her behaviour and clothing being deemed un-Islamic.

"I don't actually understand this child's reasons for constantly attacking Samara, but there is something. I think it's... the fact that she (Samara)... is maybe a little more liberated than some students," she told BFMTV.

She accused this classmate of being the "sponsor" of the attack and claimed that this schoolgirl had been suspended for two days in June 2023, in particular after having published a photo of her daughter on social networks calling for her to be raped.

But outside the school, a student who did not wish to be named said she thought what had happened "had nothing to do with a certain way of dressing".

She said the other girl accused Samara of posting a photo of her with an insult on social media.

Four other pupils were also convinced clothes had nothing to do with it, and repeated the same story.

President Emmanuel Macron in televised comments expressed "solidarity" with the girl who was attacked but urged caution in drawing conclusions about the circumstances of the attack.

"At this stage I would be wary of categorising things," he said.

"I want the full truth to be established... and the conclusions to be drawn then."

Teen boy hospitalised after savage attack

A 15-year-old teenager has been badly beaten in a town south of Paris and rushed to hospital following a cardiac arrest, in the latest incident of school violence in France.

Thursday's attack came at a time of heightened tensions around French schools.

Earlier this week a teenage girl was left temporarily comatose after being beaten outside her school in the south of the country.

In the new incident, which occurred in the town of Viry-Châtillon, located around 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Paris, a teenager was attacked by several people as he left school on Thursday afternoon.

The public prosecutor's office said it had opened a probe into attempted murder and gang assault.

The schoolboy suffered cardiorespiratory arrest, a police source said.

He was rushed to Necker hospital, a top paediatric hospital in Paris, said Jean-Marie Vilain, the mayor of Viry-Châtillon.

The assailants "tried to massacre him", said Vilain, speaking of "the worst kind of thugs".

"This extreme violence is becoming commonplace," he added.

According to the mayor, psychological help would be provided to the pupils and teachers of the school, which the teenager attended.

According to a police source, the teenager was beaten by several people who then fled.

The pupil was found in a street "not far from his school", according to prosecutors.

The school is located in a working-class ditrict of Viry-Châtillon, which is home to around 30,000 people.

No arrests had been made by Thursday evening.