Lyon, France - A 15-year-old French schoolboy sprayed a teacher with teargas after she described al-Qaeda as a "terrorist group", she told reporters on Tuesday as prosecutors began their investigation.
"I had just explained that the attacks on September 11, 2001 were carried out by the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, as is written in the text book," said the history teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"He stood up and declared that al-Qaeda is not terrorist and that neither is the Taliban," she said, adding that the boy had then pulled out a spray can and doused her and a teaching assistant with teargas.
Neither victim was seriously hurt.
Al-Qaeda, a global organisation under the nominal leadership of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, boasted of carrying out the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The attacks - in which hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania - killed just under 3 000 people, the vast majority of them American civilians.
Both staff members, who work in the small school in the central French village of Largentiere, made a criminal complaint against the boy, state prosecutors confirmed.
A youth court will be convened in the nearby town of Privas on March 16 to hear the case. - AFP