Teen in court for meat-knife threat

A TEENAGE girl is to appear in court later this month accused of threatening a fellow pupil with a meat-cleaver in a row over a mobile phone.

According to a TV report on France 3 Méditerrannée, the 15-year-old girl was restrained by staff at the collège in Carqueiranne in the Var and no one was injured.

She has been temporarily excluded from school until after the court hearing in Toulon, which is due at the end of March.

The government is under increasing pressure to do more about school violence following a number of attacks involving pupils with knives and other weapons.

Education Minister Luc Chatel has promised that each of France's 8,000 collèges and lycées will be patrolled by a mobile security team, made up of school staff and gendarmes whose job is to prevent conflicts and take action if violence breaks out.

Other security measures that could be introduced by the end of the academic year include more CCTV and metal detectors in a small number of schools considered to present the highest risk. An update on the project is due next month.