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The president of France condemns the deadly attack near Paris. According to media reports, the police arrested several people, including a minor.
French officials were again forced to carry out a major operation due to a terrorist attack.
Photo: Ian Langsdon (Keystone / Icon Image)
A man was killed with a knife in an alleged terrorist attack Friday night in a Paris suburb. The attacker was killed shortly after by a police force. The victim is said to be a history teacher, his body was found near the high school in the town of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Apparently his throat was slit.
The alleged perpetrator was armed with a kitchen knife, French media report, citing police sources. When he was caught by the police, he refused to put down the knife and threatened the officers. Then the command opened fire. The alleged perpetrator had succumbed to his injuries. The man is reported to be an 18-year-old Chechen who was born in Moscow.
Police arrested four people that night. One of them is a minor, the prosecutor responsible for anti-terrorism investigations Jean-François Ricard said late Friday. They subsequently arrested five other people. This was confirmed by the antiterrorist prosecutor on Saturday. He did not elaborate. There are currently nine people in police custody. The detainees are reportedly said to be members of the alleged perpetrator’s family and others.
“They will not divide us”
President Emmanuel Macron came to the scene on Friday night and was deeply moved. There is no question as to the motives of the attacker, the head of state said in a short speech. The teacher had been “clearly the victim of an Islamist terrorist attack” because he wanted to teach his students a basic principle of French democracy: “the freedom to believe or not to believe,” Macron said. The Islamists wanted to bring down the republic. “You will not be able to do this. They will not divide us, ”he said. The head of state assured the French teachers of the solidarity of the whole country.
«The murder of a history teacher is an attack on freedom of expression and the values of the republic. Attacking a teacher means attacking all French citizens and freedom, ”wrote the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, on Twitter.
Cartoons as a motif?
The Paris counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office immediately took over the investigation. Witnesses report that the alleged killer shouted “Allah Akbar”. According to various media reports, citing investigators, the victim recently showed the famous Mohammed cartoons from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in a lesson on the subject of freedom of expression.
The editorial staff of the magazine was the victim of an Islamist attack in January 2015, in which twelve people died. The trial against possible supporters of the attackers at the time is ongoing in Paris. At the start of the trial last month, Charlie Hebdo had republished the Mohammed cartoons. At the site of the 2015 attack, just three weeks ago, a Pakistani man attacked two people and seriously wounded them with a knife. His motive is said to have been that he resented the reissue of the cartoons.
Conflans-Sainte-Honorine crime scene near Paris: Emmanuel Macron (center) is visibly shocked by the brutal attack on the teacher.
Photo: Charles Platiau (Reuters / October 16, 2020)
Numerous attacks on France
Just a few weeks ago there was a knife attack in front of the former editorial building of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” in Paris. Two people were injured; here too, investigators assume a terrorist background. In January 2015 there was a fatal attack on the editorial staff of “Charlie Hebdo”. At the beginning of the trial, the magazine had republished cartoons of Muhammad and was severely threatened. The author of the knife attack stated that he could not bear it.
At the same time, the trial of the alleged helpers of the terror series in January 2015, in which a total of 17 people died, has been taking place in Paris since the beginning of September. You can only enter the Palace of Justice in high security conditions. A verdict is expected in November. The editorial staff of “Charlie Hebdo” expressed their condolences to the relatives of the murdered teacher.
More than 250 people have died
A man was beheaded in an Islamist-motivated attack in 2015. A 35-year-old man was overwhelmed while attempting to set off explosions at an industrial gas plant in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon. He had previously beheaded his employer and stuck his head out with two Islamist flags at the factory fence.
France has been rocked by Islamist attacks for years: more than 250 people died. Therefore, people are almost always aware of the threat of terrorism. The French government has made the fight against terrorism a top priority and continues to warn that the risk of terrorist attacks is very high.
