A knife-wielding attacker in France left two primary schoolchildren with only superficial cuts on Thursday but terrified the small community of Souffelweyersheim on the outskirts of Strasbourg.
A suspect was detained after the attack in Souffelweyersheim on Thursday, according to the public prosecutor's office in Strasbourg.
The man, who is around 30 years old, was taken into police custody, it said. The two schoolgirls, aged 7 and 11, suffered superficial cuts.
They were able to leave the university hospital in Strasbourg after brief treatment.
Nothing was initially known about the attacker's motive. The public prosecutor's office announced in the evening that there were no indications that the perpetrator was radicalized or had a terrorist background.
According to initial findings, the man was suffering from mental health problems.
Schools in Souffelweyersheim locked down for security reasons after the attack, and a schoolgirl at a nearby secondary school suffered a serious heart attack, according to police.
The two schoolgirls cut in the knife attack were taken to the paediatric ward of the university hospital in Strasbourg, while the schoolgirl who suffered a heart attack is being treated in serious condition in hospital.
After the primary school's lunch break at around 2 pm (1200 GMT), the attacker suddenly stabbed the 11-year-old in the neck at the entrance and ran away while the school alerted the police.
On his escape, the man crossed the path of a mother with her 7-year-old daughter, whom he stabbed in the neck.
Gendarmerie officers pursued the perpetrator and arrested him shortly afterwards, but he resisted, according to the public prosecutor's office.
During the police operation, the other pupils initially had to remain in the school, which was locked for security reasons, while their parents waited outside.
Medical and psychological help was organized for the school concerned and the waiting parents were informed about the incident. The perpetrator did not enter the school, the authorities emphasized.
Education Minister Nicole Belloubet assured the girls and their families of her full support. "In the face of this new intolerable act, a decisive response must be taken immediately." Security measures would be taken and psychological support organized, she said.
There was a serious incident at a neighbouring secondary school, which was also cordoned off due to the threat.
According to the public prosecutor's office, a 14-year-old schoolgirl suffered a cardiac arrest there during this time. After first aid on site, the pupil was taken to a hospital in Strasbourg in a serious condition.
France is currently on the highest terror alert level and schools have been under special protection for some time.
"I panicked, I immediately thought of my son," a mother told BFMTV outside the school. "It hurts to know that something like this can happen in a school."
In mid-October, a radicalized Islamist former pupil stabbed a teacher to death in a secondary school in Arras in northern France.