A terror attack that left a schoolteacher dead is linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, France’s interior minister has said.
Gerald Darmanin said France would also be placed on its highest level of security alert after the suspected Islamist attack.
Police arrested a Russian-born Chechen shortly after a teacher was killed at a secondary school in the northeastern city of Arras, 115 miles (185 km) north of Paris.
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French police secure the scene in Arras
Three other people were wounded in the incident.
A day before the attack, the suspect had been held by police for questioning on suspicion of radicalism, Mr Darmanin added.
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Schoolchildren leave the Gambetta high school. Pic: AP
‘We did our job seriously’
Security services had, he said, been monitoring the man since the summer over suspected Islamic radicalisation, and, after listening to his phone calls for several days, decided to question him.
Insisting the intelligence services “did our job seriously”, Mr Darmanin said investigators found no sign he was preparing an attack.
“There was a race against the clock. But there was no threat, no weapon, no indication,” he said.
The suspect, identified by prosecutors as Mohamed M, was reportedly refusing to speak to investigators.
His younger brother was among “several” others also in custody, national counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said.
Police could not confirm local media reports, which originated from one of the first officers on the scene, that the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” – which means “God is great” in Arabic – before the stabbing.
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A mother of a student outside the Lycee Gambetta-Carnot high school in Arras
French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack “barbaric Islamic terrorism”
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Teacher ‘saved many lives’
Standing near to where the attack happened, Mr Macron paid his respects to the dead teacher, named by local media as French language teacher, Dominique Bernard.
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A police officer holds an assault rifle outside the Gambetta high school in Arras. Pic: AP
Mr Macron said: “[He] stepped in and undoubtedly saved a lot of lives himself.
Insisting the school would be open on Saturday, he added: “Our choice is made not to give in to terror, not to let anything die us.”
The suspect, born in 2003, was a former student of the Lycee Gambetta high school where the attack happened, a police source said.
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French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the media after the knife attack. Pic: AP
A teacher, a security guard and a cleaning worker were critically injured and were fighting for their lives in hospital following the knife attack.
Residents have been advised by local authorities to avoid the centre of the city, which is about 30 miles south of Lille.
Students were reportedly locked down in the school during the incident.
None of the children were physically harmed during the attack, according to reports.
Arras is shocked and bewildered and wants answers
In the heart of Arras, not far from a pedestrianised shopping precinct, there are hundreds of armed police officers.
French President Emmanuel Macron has come to town, along with two of his most trusted lieutenants – the interior and education ministers.
But the atmosphere is one of shock and sadness.
As I arrive, guided through a police cordon, I see a man walking away, his arm draped around his subdued teenage daughter.
The Lycee Gambetta stands ahead of us. It is a forgettable building, softened by tall trees. But now, it is surrounded by police vans and incident tape.
What happened at the school was horrendous – a knife attack of particular savagery that has shaken people here.
I spoke to one student outside the school, a thoughtful sixth-former called Remi.
He told me Arras was a quiet, safe town. “I’d say it was chilled,” he said – and that he had been shocked when he heard the news of the attack: “Why would you do something like that? Why would have so little value for a human life?”
The question is why?
Why did this man do something so brutal? Was it an isolated incident, was it inspired by the conflict in the Middle East, or by the ongoing resonance of the murder of Samuel Paty, almost exactly three years ago.
Was he motivated by Islamist fury, or by some other grievance. Arras, like the French nation, wants answers but at the moment, this town reverberates simply to shock, bewilderment and sadness.
‘He told us to get out’
Local media quoted one pupil as saying: “We came out of class to go to the canteen, and we saw the guy with two knives attacking the teacher, who had blood on him.
“He tried to calm him down and protect us. He told us to get out, but we didn’t understand. We ran, and others went back upstairs.”
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A security alert was sparked later at another school in Arras.
A third man was reportedly arrested in that incident when he tried to enter the school with a suspicious rucksack.
Education Minister Gabriel Attal has urged schools across France to “immediately take all measures” to increase security.
Naima Moutchou, a vice president of France’s National Assembly, expressed “solidarity and thoughts for the victims, their families and the educational community” on behalf of the assembly’s representatives.
