A young man armed with a knife killed a teacher this Friday and seriously injured two other people in an institute in the city of Arras, in the department of Pas de Calais, in northern France. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, has traveled to the scene of the events, as have the Ministers of Education, Samuel Attal, and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
The attacker, 20 years old, a former student of the same educational center, was arrested by the police shortly after his action and is being interrogated. A 16-year-old brother of the author has also been arrested, and another, who is in prison for preparing an attack and for advocating terrorism, was taken to give a statement in case he had anything to do with what happened.
Witnesses indicated that the attacker shouted ‘Allah u Akbar’ (Allah is great) during the attack. The deceased teacher, a French teacher, was stabbed in the neck. The two injured are another teacher, who is in very serious condition, and the head chef, whose condition is less serious. The attacker, of Chechen origin, arrived in France in 2008. He was registered as an extremist and the police were monitoring him. According to him, he was the subject of a check yesterday, without any danger or sign being perceived that he was preparing to attack.
Although it has not yet been verified that the attack has a direct relationship with the war unleashed between Israel and Hamas, it is plausible that this is the case. The context is highly flammable. The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office is in charge of the investigation, which indicates that there is a strong suspicion that it is an act of jihadist motive.
The French Government was very concerned about the importation of the Gaza conflict, since France is the European country with the largest Jewish community and, at the same time, the French and Muslim immigrants number millions of people, a potentially very problematic scenario. In a televised address on Thursday night, Macron had called for national unity in this moment of great tension and offered maximum protection to the Jewish community and places of worship.
The deadly Arras attack occurs just days before the third anniversary of the murder of teacher Samuel Paty in a school on the outskirts of Paris. Paty’s murderer, whom he beheaded, was also a young man of Chechen origin who reproached the teacher for showing a caricature of Muhammad in class. Representatives of the teaching unions expressed their dismay and the alarm that exists among teachers.
