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A history teacher who started a discussion with high school students about cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad of Islam was beheaded on a French street and the suspected killer was shot dead by police, authorities said.
The French counter-terrorism prosecutor opened a murder investigation with an alleged terrorist motive, the prosecutor’s office said.
The gruesome murder of the teacher occurred in the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine while the suspect was killed by the police in neighboring Eragny. The cities are located in the Val d’Oise region northwest of Paris.
The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, was heading to the area.
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A police officer said the suspect, armed with a knife and an airsoft pistol _ that shoots plastic pellets _ was shot to death about 600 meters from where the teacher was killed after he failed to respond to orders to lower the guns. arms and acted threateningly.
Michel Euler / AP
French police officers gather after a history teacher who opened a discussion with students about cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad of Islam was beheaded on a street north of Paris. Police shot and killed the alleged killer.
The teacher had received threats after opening a discussion “for a debate” about the cartoons about 10 days ago, the police officer told The Associated Press. A student’s father had filed a complaint against the teacher, another police officer said, adding that the alleged killer did not have a child at the school. The identity of the suspect was not made public.
The two officials could not be named because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigations.
“We didn’t see it coming,” Conflans resident Remi Tell told CNews television station. He described the city as peaceful.
It was the second terrorism-related incident since the opening of an ongoing trial on the January 2015 newsroom massacre at the satirical newspaper. Charlie hebdo after the publication of cartoons of the prophet of Islam.
When the trial opened, the newspaper republished cartoons of the prophet to underscore the right to freedom of expression. Exactly three weeks ago, a young man from Pakistan was arrested after stabbing, in front of the newspaper’s former offices, two people who suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The 18-year-old told police he was upset by the publication of the cartoons.
The incident came as the Macron government is working on a bill to tackle Islamist radicals who authorities say are creating a parallel society outside the values of the French Republic.
