
The adolescent appeared in court on Monday in Meaux, near Paris, where he was arraigned on a charge of premeditated murder and placed in custody pending another hearing on Thursday, local prosecutor Jean-Michel Bladier said in a statement.
The killing occurred Saturday in a camping site in the town of Villevaude, on the outskirts of Paris.
The prosecutor said the mortal chain of events apparently started with the suspect repeatedly being rejected as a TikTok contact by a girl.
A heated telephone call between the suspect and the girl allegedly took place on Saturday, during which another 17-year-old — the boyfriend of a close friend of the girl — grabbed the phone and challenged the suspect to a fight at the camping site.
Bladier said that teenaged boy was set upon by two individuals at the camping site, where he suffered a fatal stab wound to the chest.
The 17-year-old suspect, identified by eyewitnesses, was arrested Saturday night after he turned up at the emergency ward of a Paris suburban hospital with a knife wound on his hand he said he had caused by accident.
The prosecutor said the adolescent told investigators he had gone to the camping site, with a knife, “to show he wasn’t afraid”.
The suspect said he “lost his head” and did not intend to kill, Bladier said.
The suspect had a juvenile criminal record, for violence against an older relative and for weapons possession.
The prosecutor said a friend of the suspect, considered an accomplice at the camping site, had yet to be identified.