• Attacker sent long, bleak email to entire school.
• Teachers overpowered the attacker before police arrived.
• Media report that student killed was a girl.

NANTES: A 15-year-old boy killed a fellow pupil and wounded three others in a stabbing attack at a high school in the western French city of Nantes on Thursday, before he was overpowered by teachers, police said.

BFM TV reported that the student who died was a girl and that the three injured students were boys. Police did not confirm the age or gender of the victims.

Teaching staff subdued the attacker at the Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides, a private Catholic school, before police arrived, a police spokesperson said.

She said there was nothing to indicate a terrorist motive.

Students were held inside the school after the attack but allowed to leave in the mid-afternoon under police protection. Dozens of parents waited outside.

“We’re waiting to be able to hold them in our arms … to help them deal with the stress this will have caused,” said Nicolas, a parent at the school.

Police did not name the suspect or give any motives for the attack.

Local newspaper West France said the attacker was dressed all in black, and wore a helmet and balaclava. Two knives were found lying next to his belongings, it said.

BFM and other media reported that the suspected attacker, using his email account, had emailed a document to all students in the school in which he painted a bleak picture of society, but had not made any mention of a possible attack.

French broadcaster franceinfo said the stabbing followed a conflict among students.

Police did not immediately confirm the media reports.