17ARRAS, (France), Oct 16 : French President Emmanuel Macron was holding Monday a special security meeting amid heightened alert against feared terror threats, as a high school where a teacher was fatally stabbed in an attack last week has been evacuated over a bomb alert.
Several hundreds of students and teachers could be seen going back into the high school in the northern town of Arras after what appeared to be a false.
It comes after a teacher was killed and three other people wounded Friday in an attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalisation.
The prefecture of the northern region where the high school is located said that “all precautionary and safety measures” have been taken after the bomb threat was made via a police website. A demining team was on site.
The Louvre Museum in Paris and Versailles Palace evacuated visitors and staff Saturday after receiving bomb threats.
Macron cut short travel plans abroad to hold a security meeting at midday with the prime minister and other key government members as well as top military and counterterrorism officials. Macron was initially planned to attend a summit on the Western Balkans in Tirana, Albania.
Education Minister Gabriel Attal said 168 bomb threats in French schools have been reported since the beginning of September. “This is inadmissible and unacceptable,” he said.
The French government heightened the national threat alert and ordered up to 7,000 soldiers to be deployed by Monday night and until further notice to bolster security and vigilance around France.
Schoolchildren and educators were to hold a moment of silence in all French schools on Monday afternoon in homage to the teacher who was fatally stabbed in Friday’s attack.
The homage will also pay tribute to another teacher, Samuel Paty, killed exactly three years ago near his Paris area school. He was beheaded by a radicalised Chechen later killed by police.
In a message to teachers and other school workers posted on X, formerly Twitter, Macron said “we took action, we are taking action and we will continue to take action to ensure that school remains a sanctuary for our students and for all those who work there.”
“To blind hatred, we will always oppose the inextinguishable thirst for teaching. The thirst for knowledge. The thirst for living free,” he added.
Counterterrorism authorities are investigating Friday’s stabbing, and the suspected assailant and several others are in custody, prosecutors said. The suspect had been under recent surveillance by intelligence services for radicalization. Court documents viewed by The Associated Press show he is from the Ingushetia region in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains, which neighbours Chechnya.
The prosecutor said the alleged assailant was a former student there and repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” during the attack. Prosecutors are considering charges of terrorism-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.
The dead educator was Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher in the northern city of Arras at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrols students ages 11-18. Another teacher and a security guard were in critical condition with wounds from the stabbing, police said. The counterterrorism prosecutor said a cleaning worker was also injured. (AP)
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