In an incident at a school on Friday in the city of Arras in northern France, a 20-year-old man killed a teacher and critically injured two other people. President Emmanuel Macron denounced the attack as “barbaric Islamic terrorism.”
The Middle East, where Israel is waging a military effort to oust Hamas fighters following their deadly spree, is connected to the Arras incident, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. France is now on its highest state of alert.
Macron had urged the French to maintain their unity and avoid taking the Israel-Hamas crisis into their own country just one day before.
When Macron visited the scene of the attack, Dominique Bernard’s body, which was still covered and surrounded by a pool of blood, was remembered.
“(He) stepped up and undoubtedly rescued a lot of lives himself,” Macron stated. “Our choice has been made not to give in to violence, not to let anything divide us.”
According to a police source, the suspect, Mohamed M., who has been detained, attended Lycee Gambetta High School before the attack, which was carried out there. Additionally, one of the attackers’ brothers was apprehended close by.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office received the probe.
According to prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, numerous witnesses heard the assailant yell “Allahu Akbar” on Friday.
According to a police source, the attacker was listed on a state registry of individuals considered possible security risks. Only a few of the thousands of names in the “Fiche S” are being actively monitored.
Darmanin claimed that since authorities had seen the man’s odd behavior but no sign of a planned attack, they had been keeping an eye on him and had tapped his phone for the past few days.
The police source identified the individual as Russian-born Chechen, however, some French media identified him as Russian-born Ingush.
An older brother of the alleged attacker was reportedly spent time in prison for connections to Islamist militant networks and glorifying terrorist crimes, according to a security source.
Islamists have targeted France in a number of incidents over the years, the worst of which was in November 2015 when gunmen and suicide bombers simultaneously attacked cafes and entertainment places in Paris.
BETTER SECURITY
According to Darmanin, there was no specific threat that prompted the status of the alert to be raised.
A Chechen teenager killed a teacher named Samuel Paty in 2020 as retaliation for him using drawings ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad in a class on free speech.
“Once again a school has been targeted by the barbarity of Islamic terrorism,” Macron stated.
Three people, including one with a chair, were seen on a video acquired by Reuters trying to stop the assailant in the school’s parking lot but being assaulted by him. One of those onlookers said, “He’s got a knife, that he’s got a knife.”
Martin Doussau, a philosophy professor, claimed that the attacker pursued him but that he was able to flee unharmed by locking himself in a room. He said that the attacker didn’t seem to be looking to make amends.
According to Doussau, “He was looking for a history teacher.” “That’s what left me thinking this wasn’t … about resolving a personal vendetta against a teacher.”
Later, a security alarm was raised at a different Arras school, a school employee told Reuters. According to French media, a third man was detained in that episode when he attempted to enter the school while carrying a dubious-looking rucksack.
According to France’s Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, security measures at schools would be further up.
According to Macron, a further attack in the greater Paris area was averted on Friday.
For several hours, students were restricted to their classrooms.
Students initially believed it was a drill when the alarm went off and they had to hide, according to Louis, a 15-year-old student.
It just goes to prove that it can happen anywhere, he told Reuters.
The deindustrialized, ethnically diverse northern corner of France includes the city of Arras, which is a stronghold for the far right.