Parents of Oise students control a man armed with a knife in front of a school

Tuesday, at the beginning of the afternoon, a man in his forties was arrested, suspected of having threatened several people with a knife near the Institution of the Holy Spirit, a private and Catholic school complex located in the Saint-Jean district, in Beauvais.

In a particularly advanced state of intoxication during his arrest, he was placed in a sobering-up cell, then in police custody "for violence with the use or threat of a weapon, rebellion and carrying a weapon", indicates the prosecution. from Beauvais.

According to the first elements of the investigation, the individual showed up at lunchtime in the rue de Pontoise, where the school is located, at the time of leaving school for middle school and high school students.

The latter was "very alcoholic", according to a police officer.

And above all he holds a kitchen knife in his hand with which he "would have threatened two parents of pupils and a pupil", reports Caroline Tharot, prosecutor of the Republic of Beauvais.

According to the magistrate, the two parents heard by the investigators explained "that the respondent raised his knife in the air with a threatening air".

"A hell of a scare"

No one was injured during the incident, but "he scared the hell out of the people who were there," said a police officer. According to the director of

atholic education of the Oise, Pascal Leroy, "a young person had the good reflex to enter the establishment to warn the educational community". “The students did not play heroes,” greeted a staff. But faced with the potential threat, a group of parents decide to intervene. "They controlled and held him back until the police arrived," says Caroline Tharot.

Once there, the police, supported by their colleagues from the municipal police, face a "particularly virulent" individual who refuses to be arrested, pushing the agents to use an electric pulse pistol. .

Wednesday evening, the individual, whose custody has been extended, was still at the Beauvais police station.

"The investigations are continuing," said the prosecutor.

Contacted, the lawyer of the defendant, Me Domitille Risbourg, did not wish to speak.