A teacher has been stabbed to death in France by a secondary school pupil, according to French authorities and media reports.

The teenager has been arrested by police, the prosecutor of Bayonne said.

The attacker has severe mental health issues, a top government official suggested.

The boy heard voices telling him to kill the 53-year-old, who taught Spanish at the private Catholic school in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, French media said.

Education Minister Pap Ndiaye will go to the school later on Wednesday.

French government spokesman Olivier Veran, speaking after a weekly Cabinet meeting, expressed the government’s support for the education community and said the attack represents a trauma for the nation.

In 2020, teacher Samuel Paty was killed outside his school in suburban Paris by an 18-year-old refugee, of Chechen origin, who was angry at being shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class after the images were republished by a satirical newspaper targeted in a 2015 attack.