Man loses it, bites teacher

2009-10-22 22:27

Copenhagen - A Palestinian father hit a Danish primary school teacher and bit his ear after he shook the hand of the man's daughter, police said on Thursday.

The 47-year-old Danish teacher of Moroccan origin had invited the father and daughter for a meeting at the school in the town of Vollsmose on Wednesday when he was "repeatedly hit and bitten in the ear", police said.

"The father, a Palestinian, apparently became furious that the teacher had greeted his daughter just before a meeting," Joergen Andersen, police superintendent in the nearby city of Odense, told AFP.

The 33-year-old father, a Muslim, said the teacher had "gone too far and offended his honour", Andersen said.

"The man is apparently not a fundamentalist," Andersen said. But he "could not accept this handshake between the teacher and his daughter".

The father told police he had "lost his cool" because of what he considered the teacher's "indecent" behaviour, Andersen said.

The teacher was treated at a hospital and put on sick leave.

The father was charged with assault on a public service employee. He was arrested and released on Thursday.

"It's the first time that a teacher is the victim of such violence in Denmark," Odense mayor Anker Boye told TV2 News television.

- SAPA