[ad_1]
A teacher has been killed in what is called a beheading in a Paris suburb. The victim had shown cartoons of Muhammad during the hour, French police say according to AFP.
– One of our fellow citizens was murdered today because he taught about freedom of expression, the freedom to believe and not to believe. Our fellow citizen was cowardly attacked and was the victim of an Islamist terrorist attack, says French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the daily Le Figaro.
He condemns the attack on the teacher and says that the attack will not divide the country.
– Tonight I want to tell all the teachers in France that we are with them, that the whole nation will be by their side today, tomorrow, to protect them, defend them, let them do their work.
Says Islamist terrorists will not win.
– France will respond quickly and with authority, he says.
The suspect was shot and killed
AFP and several French newspapers reported shortly after 6.30 p.m. on Friday night that a man had been beheaded in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. The attack occurred around 5 p.m. near a school.
French media write that the police tried to arrest a man with a knife who behaved in a threatening manner near where the body was found. According to Le Parisien, the man tried to escape and refused to lay down his weapon. He was then shot and killed by the police.
The area has been cordoned off. A bomb squad was called in because police feared there were explosives in the area where the perpetrator was shot.
Ongoing terrorism investigation
According to French media, the murder victim was a history teacher and showed cartoons in connection with a conference on freedom of expression.
French police wrote on Twitter around 5.30pm that there was an incident in the area and asked people to stay away.
France’s counterterrorism unit PNAT is investigating the incident, writes Reuters. Police say they are investigating the incident as “a murder linked to a terrorist organization,” according to AFP / NTB / Ritzau.
Macron was on the scene
President Emmanuel Macron was at the scene Friday night, according to Le Figaro. He previously attended a meeting on the subject at the Interior Ministry.
The National Assembly has condemned what they call “a heinous attack.”
Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer writes on Twitter:
– Tonight, the republic is attacked with this despicable murder of one of our workers, a teacher. Tonight I think of him and his family. Our unity and our determination are the only answers to the monstrosity of this Islamist terror.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who is traveling to Morocco, will return to Paris immediately after speaking with Prime Minister Jean Castex and President Emmanuel Macron, Darmanin’s office reports, NTB writes.
Charlie Hebdo: – Shocked and upset.
The attack comes at the same time as a trial in the wake of the terrorist attack on the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015, which killed 12 people.
The reason Charlie Hebdo became the target of the attack was that the satire magazine had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad several times.
On Twitter, the satire magazine expresses its deepest condolences to the family, loved ones and all the teachers at the school. They write that they are “shocked and upset” that a teacher has been killed by a “religious fanatic.”
– Intolerance has just crossed a new threshold and does not seem to stop for anything that inflicts terror on our country. Only through political power and solidarity for all will we defeat this fascist ideology, they write in the same Twitter thread.
