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BEZIERS, France — A depressed French math teacher set herself on fire in a high school playground on Thursday, officials said, but she is expected to survive after pupils and fellow teachers rushed to her aid.

The 44-year-old doused herself in petrol during the morning break and set herself alight, one day after a stormy meeting with children in her class who found her teaching methods too strict, witnesses said.

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“She should pull through,” said state prosecutor Patrick Mathe, who added that the woman was suffering from depression and was seen as having tried to commit suicide. “It was a desperate act… there was no crime.”

The teacher suffered third-degree burns in the incident at the Jean Moulin secondary school in Beziers, southern France, and was taken by helicopter to a specialist unit in the city of Montpellier’s university teaching hospital.

Parents and pupils who spoke to AFP at the scene said the teacher had a difficult relationship with several pupils in her maths class and that a meeting with them to clear the air on Wednesday had become rowdy.