A man of Chechen descent stabbed to death a teacher. He seriously injured two other adults at a school in northeastern France, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to condemn the attack as "Islamist terror."
Following the Hamas attack on Israel this weekend, France, which has sizable Jewish and Muslim populations, has been on high alert for security dangers.
"This school was struck by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism," Macron said after visiting the school in Arras, adding that the victim "probably saved many lives" by attempting to block the perpetrator.
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On Friday, Macron announced that security forces stopped a second attack elsewhere in France, although he did not elaborate.
Police apprehended the suspected attacker, Mohammed Moguchkov.
He comes from Russia's predominantly Muslim southern Caucasus area of Chechnya and was already listed on a French national register known as "Fiche S" as a potential security danger, according to a police source, and was under electronic and physical observation by France's domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI.
Moguchkov exclaimed in Arabic, "Allahu akbar!" According to the preliminary findings of the inquiry, (God is greatest!).
The victim, a French teacher, had her throat and chest stabbed.
According to the source, those injured included a school security guard who was stabbed numerous times and is battling for his life and a teacher in less bad condition.
According to another police source, no students were injured at the school.
The attack occurred almost three years after a Chechen beheaded teacher Samuel Paty near his school in a Paris suburb on October 16, 2020.
"Three years after the assasination of Samuel Paty, terrorism has struck a school again and in a context that we all know," French President Emmanuel Macron stated.
According to police, Moguchkov's 17-year-old brother was captured near another school.