A school in northern France where a teacher was stabbed by a stabber who allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” was evacuated today after a bomb threat.
Dozens of staff and students walked out of Gambetta middle and high school in the northern city of Arras at around 10:30 a.m. (9:30 a.m. GMT) after police received a threat via their website.
A bomb disposal team, including sniffer dogs, was on site and “all precautionary and safety measures” would be taken until the school was evacuated, the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais region said.
Today, schools across France will observe a minute’s silence for French teacher Dominique Bernard, who was allegedly stabbed to death by Mohamed Mogouchkov, a Chechen refugee aged 20.
Mogouchkov reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” before launching his attack on 57-year-old Bernard on Friday, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to call for a “ruthless” crackdown on extremists in France.
Bernard’s killing came on the same day that leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group behind ruthless attacks in Israel, called on Muslims around the world to rally on the “Day of Jihad.”
The knife attack, almost three years to the day after a similar murder outside Paris, shocked teachers and members of the public. It triggered a massive response from security forces and prompted France to raise the alert level for attacks.
Rescue workers wait outside the Gambetta high school during a bomb scare on Monday in Arras, northern France
A French police officer and a police dog enter during the evacuation of Gambetta High School following a bomb threat in Arras on Monday
The Lycée Gambetta d’Arras college was evacuated due to a bomb warning. The Pompiers, the police and the Sentinelle military are on the scene. Les démineurs sont attendus. Furthermore, they gave her more flowers on her head when they were not yet in the time they needed. #Arras pic.twitter.com/D7hQDG55qD
— Samuel Cogez (@SamuelCogez) October 16, 2023
A video shows a confrontation between two men on the school grounds in the northern French city
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 northern French city of Arras
Friday’s attack further heightened nervousness in France, which has a large Muslim and Jewish population and has been wary of violence since Hamas’ attack on Israel that killed 1,300 Israelis.
Today at the school where Bernard was stabbed to death along with three others, classes were expected to observe a minute’s silence at 2pm (1pm GMT) to remember Bernard in schools across France.
Early classes at middle and high schools were canceled Monday so teachers could discuss the attack and how to deal with it in front of students.
Nevertheless, “we will not allow terrorism to paralyze our country,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Monday.
Macron will chair a new meeting on national security later on Monday, the Elysee said.
Bernard was killed almost three years to the day after teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded outside his school in a Paris suburb on October 16, 2020.
Paty’s murderer and the suspected Arras attacker come from Russia’s North Caucasus region.
Moguchkov, who came to France at the age of five, reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar!” meaning “God is the greatest” during the attack. A police source said he was arrested but has not yet commented.
He was already registered in a French national register as a potential security threat and was under electronic and physical surveillance by the French domestic intelligence agency DGSI. His father, who was also on the list, was deported in 2018.
Mogouchkov’s brother, who was also taken into custody, is believed to have spent 18 months in prison for spreading ISIS propaganda online, and Mogouchkov was also a known ISIS sympathizer, sources said.
French military personnel deployed as part of the ongoing ‘Operation Sentinelle’ stand guard during the evacuation of Gambetta High School following a bomb threat in Arras, north-eastern France, today
French police and firefighters stand outside the Gambetta-Carnot school where French teacher Dominique Bernard was killed in a knife attack on Friday, after the school was evacuated on Monday following a bomb scare in Arras
A team from France’s SAMU (Urgent Medical Assistance Service) stands during the evacuation of Gambetta High School following a bomb threat in Arras on Monday
Police officers and rescue workers at Gambetta High School during the bomb scare
A psychiatrist from France’s SAMU (Urgent Medical Assistance Service) waits during the evacuation of Gambetta High School following a bomb threat in Arras on Monday
Police officers stand in front of the Gambetta High School during the bomb scare on Monday
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.”
Mr Hamzi said he was alerted and called by another officer who was passing by the school. He “yelled, ‘Someone is attacking with a knife,'” he said.
“Colleagues arrived quickly but unfortunately were unable to save the victim,” Mr Hamzi added.
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 barricaded themselves in classrooms and were ordered to stay inside.
The attack was the result of “barbaric Islamist terrorism,” President Macron told reporters at the scene on Friday, but added that police helped prevent another attack attempt elsewhere in France.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrives at Gambetta High School in Arras on Friday October 13th following the knife attack
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, on October 13
Police are investigating after the knife attack at the school in Arras on Friday morning
“The teacher who was killed had come forward to protect others and undoubtedly saved many lives,” Macron said.
The French president has since called on police to search the files of radicalized people who could be deported from France to ensure no one is overlooked.
He also told ministers to “embody a state that is ruthless towards anyone who harbors hatred and terrorist ideologies,” a senior adviser told reporters.
They added that Macron had told the interior minister to take a “special approach to young men between the ages of 16 and 25 from the Caucasus.”
The French president later wrote that schools would remain a “bulwark” against extremism and “a refuge for our students and everyone who works there.”
Friday’s killing has led to calls for stricter security measures at schools. The government has already put the country on high alert and deployed 7,000 soldiers.
Since 2012, more than 260 people have been killed in France in attacks attributed to or claimed by Islamist radicals – from mass killings in Paris and Nice in 2015 and 2016 to individual killings of teachers, police officers or a priest.
Three years ago, Paty was beheaded by 18-year-old Abdullah Anzorov, a radicalized refugee born in Moscow to Chechen parents. Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia’s Caucasus region.
Bernard was killed almost three years to the day after teacher Samuel Paty (pictured) was beheaded outside his school in a Paris suburb on October 16, 2020
Anzorov, who came to France as a six-year-old, was shot dead by police at the scene.
Friday’s attack also comes amid rising tensions in France, which has large Jewish and Muslim communities, after Hamas attacked Israel last weekend.
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.
There was also controversy over the French government’s ban on pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks. The left claimed it was no longer possible to protest for peace, while the right said the measures did not go far enough.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Thursday ordered a nationwide ban on the demonstrations because they were “likely to cause disturbances to public order,” adding that organizers would face arrest.
And today, French National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet, who belongs to Macron’s Renaissance Party, said a draft immigration law should be voted on “by the end of the year.”
The bill stipulates that “people who are not integrated, who are radicalized, who swear violent hatred against the….” [French] Republic… must actually be able to be removed,” she told France 2.
Opposition to the bill came from conservative Republicans who oppose other provisions that allow the legalization of some undocumented migrants.
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.
This is breaking news, more to come…