France was yesterday placed on its highest state of counter-terrorism alert after a Russian national of Chechen origin fatally stabbed a teacher and seriously wounded two others at a school in the northern city of Arras.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said there was ‘no doubt’ of a link between the attack at Gambetta high school and the Israel-Hamas conflict, the BBC reports.
Witnesses said the knifeman, who is now in custody, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is greatest) during the attack at the school. The attack comes amid rising tensions in France’s sizeable Muslim and Jewish communities, due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
French police say the attacker, named as 20-year-old Mohamed Mogouchkov, is known to the security services for his involvement with Islamist extremism.
According to the BBC, Mogouchkov, a former pupil at the school, alarmed teachers with his extremist language.
Police also arrested several members of the assailant’s family – a brother aged 17, his mother, a sister and an uncle.
[Photo: El Debate]