STRASBOURG: Teachers shut a state school in eastern France on Tuesday in protest against a Muslim schoolgirl who insisted on wearing a headscarf to class.

Teachers in the school in Thann, near the borders with Germany and Switzerland, complained the 11-year-old girl of Turkish origin had been allowed to attend school wearing only a small bandanna on her head and then broke that agreement.

The girl arrived at the school last month after being expelled from another school for refusing to remove her full headscarf there.

The dispute highlighted the problems France will face when it applies its newly-passed ban on religious symbols in state schools in September. Critics say the law is vague and pupils will probably test its limits with new variations of headgear.

"Everything that has taken us years to build up is now threatened - our school rules, the calm we had until now, the equality of all pupils under the regulations," the teachers said in a statement. -Reuters