Paris police investigate fatal stabbing of 14-year-old boy over phone theft

French police are investigating the stabbing death of a 14-year-old in Paris who refused to give up his phone.

French police are investigating the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old who refused to give up his phone to two teenagers in Paris, police and prosecutors said.

French police are looking into the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old who refused to hand up his phone to two teens in Paris. (AFP/BERNARD BARRON/representational)

The boy was leaving a football training session on Friday evening in southern Paris when the two demanded his phone, the prosecutor's office told AFP.

When he refused, one stabbed him in the shoulder and the boy died in hospital.

Suspects aged 16 and 17 were arrested after a friend of the victim helped identify them, the prosecutor's office added. Both had appeared in court last October accused of violent theft.

Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez on Monday said one suspect had admitted to "the attempted extortion and deadly knife blow".

Nunez told RTL radio that overall there had been a fall in of youth delinquency cases but "there is a rise in youth violence that is becoming unbearable".

He said that in the Paris region, a third of those accused of violent theft were minors.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Saturday he was appalled by the death of the 14-year-old by "the knife blows of barbarians who wanted to steal his telephone".

"Rebuilding a France where parents no longer have to fear seeing their child murdered for nothing will be a long and difficult path," the right-wing minister added in a comment on X.