Man beheaded in Yvelines, Paris – terrorist crime investigated

Of: Sophie Tanha

Published: Oct 16, 2020 at 6:37 p.m.
Updated: October 16, 2020 at 11:32 p.m.

A history professor has been beheaded in a western suburb of Paris. Shortly afterwards, the police shot and killed the author.

It is suspected that the reason for the event was a conference on freedom of expression, where the murdered teacher showed cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

– One of our citizens has been the victim of pronounced Islamist terrorism, says President Macron about the act.

Shortly after 5 p.m. on Friday, police were called to the Bois-d’Aulne secondary school in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Saint-Honorine, Yvelines west of Paris. It is said that they were alerted to a man who behaved suspiciously.

Once at the scene, the police find a man who has been beheaded. The man is said to have been a geography and history teacher in upper secondary school.

It is said that he recently gave a lecture on freedom of expression and took up the cartoons of Muhammad, which according to Le Monde is the reason the act is being investigated as related to terrorism.

Photo: Michel Euler / TT

French President Emmanuel Macron at the scene outside Bois-d’Aulne high school after the murder of the history teacher.

Macron condemns the act

Shortly thereafter, at 5.30 pm, the police in the nearby town of Eragny contacted a threatening man carrying a stabbing weapon. The police shot him and was seriously injured.

According to various media, Allahu Akbar shouted, God is great, before he was shot. At first it was said that he had been seriously wounded by the shooting, but has now been pronounced dead.

Yvelines police tweeted in the afternoon, urging the public to stay away from the area.

The French prosecution investigates the crime as a murder linked to a terrorist organization.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin canceled his trip to Morocco to return to Paris due to the fact. President Emmanuel Macron is also returning from Morocco to deplore the incident. During a press conference, he called the act an Islamist terrorist attack.

– A citizen has been murdered because he was a teacher and they taught him about freedom of expression, says Macron.

The president also spoke directly to all the teachers in France and expressed his sympathy.

– We are with them, the entire nation will be by their side today and tomorrow to protect them, defend them and let them do their job: create free citizens, which is the best there is.

Published: October 16, 2020 at 6:37 p.m.