Teacher killed in knife attack by former pupil in northern France
A teacher was stabbed to death on Friday and two others injured at a high school in northern France. The perpetrator, a former student identified as 20-year-old Mohammed Mogouchkov, was taken into custody and a terrorism probe launched.
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A security guard was seriously hurt with several stab wounds, and a second teacher suffered minor injuries at the Gambetta high school in Arras, in the department of Pas-de-Calais.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on X police intervened about 11am.
The person killed was a male French language teacher who was attacked in front of the main entrance to the school complex.
President Emmanuel Macron travelled to the city, where he denounced the “barbarity of Islamist terrorism”. He also said an attempted attack in another region had been foiled by police.
Suspect identified
Anti-terrorism prosecutors haven taken charge of the investigation.
Darmanin said Mogouchkov was under active serveillance on France's "Fichier S" terror watchlist for suspected radicals. He was arrested along with his 16-year-old brother.
French media reports said Mogouchkov was of Chechen origin, born in Russia, and had entered the school shouting “Allahu Akbar”.
Mogouchkov was reportedly stopped by police on Thursday but not held. An older brother is serving a five-year prison sentence in Paris following a foiled attack in 2019.
The National Assembly in Paris suspended its session in solidarity with the victims.
Friday's attack comes almost three years to the day when French schoolteacher Samuel Paty was murdered by an Islamist militant, also of Chechen origin, for having shown cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a lesson on freedom of speech.
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