The Louvre Museum in Paris is evacuating all visitors and staff today and closing early after receiving a written threat.
The Louvre said the move was linked to the government’s decision to put France on high alert following a deadly knife attack at a school by a suspected extremist.
No one was injured and no incident was reported. Paris police said checks were underway at the museum.
As the evacuation was announced, alarms sounded in the vast museum in central Paris overlooking the Seine and in the underground shopping center beneath the landmark pyramid.
The French government has raised the threat alert level and is sending 7,000 soldiers to beef up security after the attack on a school on Friday. French authorities say a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization killed a teacher and injured three other people before being captured.
The Louvre Museum in Paris is evacuating all visitors and staff today and closing early after receiving a written threat
The Louvre said the move was linked to the government’s decision to put France on high alert following a deadly knife attack at a school by a suspected extremist
The French government has raised the threat alert level and is sending 7,000 soldiers to beef up security after the attack on a school on Friday
Dominique Bernard, 57, a French literature teacher, was murdered at Gambetta High School in Arras at 11 a.m. local time – allegedly at the hands of 20-year-old Chechen refugee Mohamed Mogouchkov
Police cordoned off the monument from all sides and the underground access as tourists and other visitors streamed out. Videos posted online showed people walking away, some rushing, others stopping to take photos, others apparently confused about what was happening.
The government is also concerned about the consequences of the war between Israel and Hamas in France.
The Louvre, home to masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, welcomes between 30,000 and 40,000 visitors daily.
Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a teacher stabbed to death in northern France yesterday, saying he had “saved many lives” by protecting students from the attacker.
Dominique Bernard, 57, a French literature teacher, was murdered at Gambetta High School in Arras at 11 a.m. local time – allegedly at the hands of 20-year-old Chechen refugee Mohamed Mogouchkov.
Mr Bernard, a father of three girls, was married to an English teacher at the school and had been trying to reason with Mogouchkov when he stormed into the schoolyard with two knives.
He then went on a rampage, killing Mr. Bernard and then seriously injuring two other adult employees.
Witnesses said the attacker was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar”, while French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the incident had a Middle East connection, as Palestinian terror group Hamas called on Muslims to rally on the “Day of Jihad”.
This handout photo published by an anonymous source on October 13, 2023 shows the suspected perpetrator (C) of a knife attack being escorted by a police officer in front of the Gambetta high school in the city of Arras in northern France
A video shows a confrontation between two men on school grounds
French President Emmanuel Macron (center) arrives at Gambetta High School in Arras
Officers stood guard outside Gambetta High School in Arras yesterday after a teacher was killed
People lay flowers outside Gambetta High School this morning after a teacher was killed and two other people seriously injured in a knife attack yesterday
Dozens of floral gifts were left outside the school by members of the public
Police officers hold flowers as they stand guard at the entrance of Gambetta High School
“This school was affected by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism,” Macron said after visiting the school.
“The teacher who was killed had come forward to protect others and undoubtedly saved many lives.”
France has raised its alert level to the highest level after a critical security meeting chaired by Macron and will deploy 7,000 troops to maintain order.
President Macron told reporters another attempted terrorist attack had been foiled by security forces.
According to the Interior Ministry, the president was referring to the arrest of a “radicalized” man who was arrested as he left a prayer hall in the Yvelines region of Paris with a banned weapon.
A total of eight people were in police custody yesterday following Mr Bernard’s death, a police source said.
In addition to the attacker, several members of his family were arrested “for investigation purposes,” including one of his brothers and his sister, other police sources said.
The national anti-terrorism prosecutor announced that he had opened an investigation.
Moguchkov, a 20-year-old, comes from Chechnya, the predominantly Muslim South Caucasus region of Russia.
According to a police source, he was already registered as a potential security threat in a French national register called “Fiche S” and was being monitored electronically and physically by the French domestic intelligence agency DGSI.
Mr Bernard, a French teacher, was stabbed in the throat and chest.
Among the wounded were a school security guard who was stabbed multiple times and is fighting for his life, and a teacher whose condition is less serious, the source added.
According to anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, a cleaner was also injured.
No students at the school were injured, according to another police source.
French President Emmanuel Macron, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and officials arrive on site
French police officers from the forensic service stand in front of the Gambetta high school in Arras
A student is comforted by a relative as he leaves Gambetta High School in Arras, where a teacher was killed and two others were seriously injured
Police are investigating after the knife attack at the school in Arras on Friday morning
Rescue workers are attending the scene of the fatal attack, which occurred around 11 a.m. local time (10 a.m. GMT) at Gambetta High School in the city of Arras
An employee of the Israeli embassy is attacked in Beijing
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, an employee of the Israeli embassy in Beijing was attacked on Friday.
Video geolocated by AFP shows the man being stabbed with a knife on a street in the Chinese capital.
“An Israeli employee of the Israeli Embassy in Beijing was attacked today,” the State Department said in a statement, adding that the attack did not take place on embassy grounds.
“The employee is being treated at the hospital and is in stable condition,” the statement said.
“The motive for the attack is under investigation.”
A video posted on social media and geolocated by AFP shows a man brandishing a knife repeatedly stabbing another man, with blood visible on the pavement.
The man with the blade is later seen leaving the area with the weapon in his hand.
In another video from the same location, security forces can be seen questioning people and making phone calls.
Then a man on a bicycle rushes towards the blood-soaked and unconscious victim and shouts “Ambulance!” to the onlookers.
The victim is seen being carried by several others to a vehicle outside the frame, presumably for medical treatment.
During the video, a police officer can be heard saying he is from the Xinyuanli Police Station.
A person who answered the phone at that station told AFP that they were “not clear” about the details of the case.
An AFP journalist at the scene of the stabbing said there were eight plainclothes police officers standing around.
There was no police tape cordoning off the area and no visible bloodstains on the ground seen in a video posted on social media.
Three shopkeepers in stores directly outside the scene of the attack said they saw nothing.
The attack came after Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 150 hostages in their surprise attack in Israel on Saturday.
Israel responded with six days of air and artillery strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, killing over 1,350 people.
A statement on the Israeli Foreign Ministry website warned that Hamas had called on “all its supporters around the world” to hold a “Day of Rage” on Friday to “attack Israelis and Jews.”
“It can be assumed that there will be protest events in various countries that have the risk of turning violent,” the statement said.
The Israeli embassy, located in a diplomatic district in northeast Beijing, appeared to be functioning normally on Friday afternoon, an AFP journalist saw.
Security personnel asked AFP not to film the location as no additional police work could be seen from outside.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond for comment.
The attack occurred almost three years to the day after the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, also by a Chechen, on October 16, 2020, near his school in a Paris suburb.
“Three years after the murder of Samuel Paty, terrorism has once again struck a school, in a context that we all know,” Macron said.
Macron traveled to Arras together with the interior and education ministers. The French president paused for a moment in front of the teacher’s body, wrapped in a blanket, lying in the parking lot in front of the school.
A puddle of blood was visible as forensic experts examined the body. Macron then visited the school’s students in an adjacent building.
At least two other people were injured, including a security guard who was stabbed multiple times and a teacher whose condition was less serious, a source added. No student at the school was injured.
Both Mogouchkov and his brother, who was also taken into custody, were known to authorities and were on the national security watch list, police said.
Moguchkov’s brother was believed to have served 18 months in prison for spreading ISIS propaganda online, and Moguchkov was also a known ISIS sympathizer, sources said.
Sliman Hamzi, a police officer who was one of the first on the scene, said Mogouchkov, a former student at the school, shouted: “Allahu Akbar” – “God is great” in Arabic.
Mr Hamzi said he was alerted and called by another officer who was passing in front of the high school. He “yelled, ‘Someone is attacking with a knife,'” Mr. Hamzi said.
“Colleagues arrived quickly but unfortunately were unable to save the victim,” Mr Hamzi said.
Fabien Dufay, a physical education teacher at the school, said he taught Mogouchkov in his senior year “three years ago.”
He described him as “a reserved, quiet student with whom I had normal conversations.”
The attacker “had two knives in his hand,” said another teacher at the school, who did not want to be named.
“He turned to me and said, ‘Are you a history teacher?’ “Are you a history teacher?” said the teacher, who then hid behind a glass door.
He added: “It was only when I left that I could realize the attack was much more serious than I thought.” “Someone was lying dead outside the school.”
Clips from the apparent attack shared by students on social media show a man appearing to lunge at the victims in the yard.
One of the victims holds a chair between himself and the attacker to defend himself, but is ultimately thrown to the ground and receives several blows.
Students, meanwhile, barricaded themselves in classrooms and were ordered to stay inside before being let out in the afternoon.
A large security cordon was set up around the school where the parents had gathered and police, fire and rescue services were deployed.
Martin Dousseau, a philosophy teacher who witnessed the attack, described a moment of panic at recess as schoolchildren confronted the gunman.
“He attacked canteen staff.” “I went down to intervene, he turned to me, chased me and asked me if I was a history and geography teacher,” Dousseau said.
“We barricaded ourselves, then the police came and immobilized him.”
The attack in Arras comes almost three years to the day after the murder of Paty, also by a Chechen extremist, on October 16, 2020.
In addition, tensions are rising in France, where there are large Jewish and Muslim communities, following Hamas’ attack on Israel last weekend.
President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the nation on Thursday that 582 religious and cultural institutions in France were under increased police protection.
“Those who confuse the Palestinian cause and the justification of terrorism are making a serious moral, political and strategic mistake,” he said.
His office said he would go to the crime scene in Arras.
There was also controversy over the French government’s ban on pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attack. Those on the left complained that it was no longer possible to protest for peace, while those on the right said the measures did not go far enough.
French police officers from the forensic service stand in front of the Gambetta high school in Arras
French police and firefighters 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 knife attack killed a teacher and injured several people in Arras, northern France, on October 13, 2023
French police officers from the forensic service stand in front of the Gambetta high school
French Education and Youth Minister Gabriel Attal (second from right) arrives at Gambetta High School yesterday as the nation is shocked by the murder of one of its teachers
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Thursday ordered the demonstrations to be banned nationwide as they were “likely to cause disturbances to public order,” adding that organizers faced arrest.
This is the latest incident in what appears to be a growing problem of knife violence in France.
In June this year, a knifeman stabbed four children in a lakeside park in the French Alps, repeatedly attacking at least one in a stroller.
The attacker, a 31-year-old Christian Syrian refugee with permanent residence in Sweden, mentioned his daughter, his wife and Jesus Christ during the attack in the seaside town of Annecy.
The knife attack followed a series of bomb, gun and knife attacks carried out by Islamic State and al-Qaeda militants in France since early 2015.
The country’s deadliest single terrorist attack ever occurred in November 2015, when 130 people were killed in Paris after suicide bombers pledging allegiance to ISIS attacked the Stade de France, cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan music venue, where 90 people were killed People died.
Earlier this year, two Paris-born gunmen with ties to al-Qaeda broke into the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, leaving 17 dead inside and three dead outside.
In July 2016, 86 people were called out and more than 400 were injured when a 19-ton truck deliberately drove into a crowd on the seafront in the southern city of Nice.
The terrorist turned out to be a Tunisian immigrant who was shot dead by police.
That same month, two IS 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 at the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice.
There were also repeated knife attacks on law enforcement officers, which led to the deaths of police officers.