© Anthony Bouges/ SDIS57
A nine-year-old girl was found dead in her family home on Saturday in Sarreguemines, a French town around 80 kilometres from the Luxembourgish border, with investigators treating the case as a presumed suicide.
The educational community in the Grand Est region said it was "shocked" on Sunday after the announcement on Saturday of the death of a 9-year-old girl who, according to initial findings, had committed suicide.
"The rector of the Grand Est academic region and the Nancy-Metz academy, Pierre-François Mourier, and the academic director of the National Education Services of Moselle, Mickaël Cabbeke, were deeply saddened to learn of the death of a pupil at the Montagne Supérieure school in Sarreguemines, who took her own life," they said in a statement.
As soon as the news broke, the National Education Authority, various government departments and the municipality of Sarreguemines "mobilised to provide immediate and appropriate support for the pupils and staff of the school. A support unit will be set up on Monday morning," they added.
"The entire educational community is deeply saddened by this tragic event and shares the grief of her family and loved ones, to whom it extends its sincere condolences."
The day before, the Sarreguemines public prosecutor’s office confirmed to the newspaper Républicain Lorrain that the child’s body had been found at her family home.
'A deliberate act'
"The investigation is ongoing," explained the public prosecutor's office, but so far the findings seem to point to it having been "a deliberate act" by the girl. She would have soon turned 10.
The public prosecutor's office did not comment further on the circumstances of the death or the child's possible motives. On Sunday, it reiterated that it would wait for the results of the forensic examination to be carried out in Strasbourg "in the coming days".
The newspaper Le Républicain Lorrain reported that there was no evidence at this stage to suggest that she had been the victim of bullying.
According to police sources, the girl was found hanged with a cloth in her bedroom by her mother and had left a letter to her loved ones. She was overweight and, according to her mother, was teased by her classmates. She had already mentioned taking her own life, the same sources said.
The education authority declined to comment while the investigation is ongoing. "It is the investigations that will be conducted internally and by the police that will determine with precision and certainty the circumstances that may have led the pupil to take her own life," they said.
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