A teacher has died and two people have been wounded in a knife attack at a high school in northern France, with authorities opening a terror probe into the incident.
The fatal attack unfolded around 11am local time (10am GMT) at the Gambetta high school in the city of Arras.
Those wounded were a security agent who was stabbed multiple times and a teacher who is in a less serious condition, the source added. No pupil at the school was hurt.
Eyewitnesses at the scene told French media that the suspect, believed to be in his twenties and a former student at the school, cried ‘Allahu Akhbar’ – the Arabic phrase for ‘God is great’ – as he carried out the attack.
A police source, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed this was supported by preliminary investigations.
Police reported the suspect is of Chechen origin and was known to authorities as he was named on the national security register.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced a police operation underway at the school, adding the suspect was arrested at the scene. The suspect’s brother was also taken into custody, according to a police source.
French President Emmanuel Macron is now making his way to visit the scene.
French police and fire fighters secure the area after a teacher was killed and several people injured in a knife attack at the Lycee Gambetta-Carnot high school in Arras, northern France
People stand near the Lycee Gambetta-Carnot high school after a teacher was killed and several people injured in a knife attack in Arras, northern France, October 13, 2023
French police officers stand in front of the Gambetta high school in Arras, northeastern France on October 13, 2023, after a teacher was killed and two other people severely wounded in a knife attack, police and regional officials said. The perpetrator has been detained by police
Clips of what appear to be the attack circulated by students on social media show how a man appears to lunge at victims in the courtyard of the school.
One of the victims holds a chair between himself and the attacker to defend himself but is ultimately bundled to the ground and sustains several blows.
Students meanwhile barricaded themselves in classrooms and were told to remain inside.
The attack in Arras comes almost three years to the day after the murder of Paty which took place on October 16, 2020.
It also comes with tensions rising in France, which has large Jewish and Muslim communities, after last weekend’s attack by Hamas on Israel.
President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Thursday that 582 religious and cultural facilities in France were receiving stepped-up police protection.
‘Those who confuse the Palestinian cause and the justification of terrorism commit a strong moral, political and strategic error,’ he said.
His office said he would head to the scene in Arras.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced a police operation underway at the school, adding the suspect was arrested at the scene, without giving more details
There has also been controversy over the French government’s ban on pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attack, with the left lamenting it was no longer possible to protest for peace but the right saying the measures did not go far enough.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Thursday ordered that the demonstrations be prohibited nationwide as they ‘are likely to generate disturbances to public order,’ adding that organisers should face arrest.
This is the latest incidence of what appears to be a growing problem of knife violence in France.
In June this year, a knifeman stabbed four children at a lakeside park in the French Alps, assaulting at least one in a stroller repeatedly.
The attacker, a 31-year-old Christian Syrian refugee with permanent Swedish residency, mentioned his daughter, his wife and Jesus Christ during the attack in the lakeside town of Annecy.
The stabbing follows a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda operatives in France, dating back to early 2015.
The deadliest single terrorist attack ever in the country came in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in Paris after suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS targeted the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 died.
Earlier in the year, two Paris-born gunmen linked to Al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, leaving 17 people dead inside and three outside.
In July 2016, 86 people were called and more than 400 injured when a 19 tonne truck was deliberately driven into crowds on the seafront promenade in the southern city of Nice.
The terrorist turned out to be a Tunisian immigrant who was shot dead by police.
During the same month, two Isis terrorists murdered an 86-year-old Catholic priest during a church service in Normandy.
And in October 2020, three people were stabbed to death by a Tunisian immigrant in the Notre Dame basilica in Nice.
There have also been frequent knife attacks on the forces of law and order, leading to the deaths of serving police.
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