- Written by Hugh Scofield, Robert Plummer
- BBC News, Paris and London
The boy was attacked near the school where he was a student.
There are renewed concerns about the level of violence in French schools after two French teenagers became victims of attacks, one of whom died.
On Friday, a 15-year-old boy named Shamseddin died in hospital.
The news came a day after he was assaulted by a group of young men near his school in Viry-Chatillon, a suburb south of Paris.
“This extreme violence is becoming the norm,” said Mayor Jean-Marie Villain.
Villain told French media that the boy was walking home from music class at around 16:30 local time on Thursday when he was attacked by a group of young men.
Witnesses said they were punched, kicked and assaulted by assailants wearing balaclavas.
He was taken to Necker Hospital, a leading children's hospital in Paris, but doctors were unable to save his life.
Local prosecutors later announced that a 17-year-old boy had been arrested by French police in connection with the murder of Willy Chatillon. Police continue to search for other assailants.
In another incident on Tuesday in the southern city of Montpellier, a 14-year-old girl named Samara was assaulted by a group shortly after leaving school and placed in an induced coma.
Police said three young men, a girl and two boys around Samara's age, were arrested and admitted to taking part in the attack. Samara later regained her consciousness.
The girl's mother told French media that Samara had been bullied by other girls at school because she refused to follow the Islamic dress code.
“Samara is wearing a little make-up, and this girl is wearing a headscarf. They kept calling her a disbeliever,” she said on French television on Wednesday.
“My daughter dresses like a European. There were insults every day. I couldn't stand it physically or mentally.”
However, prosecutors did not mention any religious links in their initial report on the attack, saying it was an argument over a photo shared on Snapchat.
And on Thursday night, Samara's mother read a statement on another French TV channel accusing the far right of trying to exploit the attack for their own benefit.
“My daughter is a devout Muslim. We fast during Ramadan and pray five times a day. Please don't use us to tarnish the name of our religion,” she said.
The attack further raised concerns about violence in schools linked to gangs, cyberbullying and pressure to adhere to Islamic rules.
Last week, the principal of a school in Paris resigned, fearing for his life after receiving death threats for instructing female students to remove their head coverings in accordance with French law.
In the same week, several schools were forced to close due to false bomb threats from people claiming to be Islamic extremists.
Two teachers have been murdered by Islamic extremists in recent years.
Samuel Paty was beheaded on a street outside Paris in 2020, and Dominique Bernard was murdered at his school in Arras in October last year.
Earlier on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said schools needed to be “protected” from “unchecked violence among teenagers and, in some cases, increasingly among young people.”
In response to the two attacks, Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally party said: “When will the government finally stand up and take full action against the barbaric acts that are undermining our society?” said.
The mayor of Viry-Châtillon, Jean-Marie Villain, wept as he spoke to reporters about Shamseddin's death, saying he left the lives of his mother and sister in ruins.
“We have to teach our children that there is good and bad, and that if you do bad things, you will be punished. And maybe you need to learn how to punish again.” “Hmm,” he said.
