A knife-wielding Chechen refugee on France’s terrorist watch list killed a teacher at his former high school and critically injured two others after allegedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” in northern France on Friday, official and local media said.
The suspect, identified as Mohammed Mogouchkov, 20, fatally stabbed Dominique Bernard, 57, a French teacher, and also injured a security guard and a gym teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot School in the city of Arras, French newspaper BFMTV reported. .
The violent attack took place in the school’s car park at around 11am local time and was captured on video, which showed three people trying to fend off the knife-wielding man with a chair.
The suspect, who was wearing a white jacket and sneakers, was seen stabbing one of the men on the ground.
“He’s got a knife, he’s got a knife,” a witness was heard exclaiming.
The knife attack took place at Lycee Gambetta-Carnot High School in Arras, northern France, on Oct 13, 2023. REUTERS
Students were locked inside the building for hours as panicked parents rushed to the school.
“We were leaving the class to go to the canteen when we saw a man with two knives attacking the teacher who was covered in blood. He tried to calm him down and protect us,” a student told outlet La Voix du Nord. “He told us to go, but we didn’t quite understand, so we ran and the others got back on.”
Another student said the alarm went off and students thought it was a drill.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said to X “criminals have been caught” while the police are conducting their operation at the school.
Mogouchkov’s 16-year-old younger brother was also arrested on Friday.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said it was investigating the attack as potential terrorism.
The deadly school attack that sent shockwaves through France came on a day when former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called on all Muslims to launch a “day of Jihad” and protest against Israel.
Several other people were also injured in the knife attack.REUTERS
Mogouchkov was identified by the national police as a Russian citizen of Chechen descent. He arrived in France as a refugee in 2008, when he was 5 years old.
The 20-year-old is known to French law enforcement agencies and is on the country’s ‘Fiche S’ watch list as a potential security risk.
Mogouchkov has been closely monitored since the summer with tails and phone surveillance – and was stopped as early as Thursday for a police check that found no wrongdoing.
Sliman Hamzi, a police officer who was one of the first on the scene said Mogouchkov shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is Great” in Arabic.
Hamzi said he was alerted by another officer, ran to the school, and saw a victim lying on the ground outside the school and the attackers being taken away.
“Colleagues arrived quickly but unfortunately could not save the victim,” said Hamzi.
Police said two other men, a second teacher and a security guard, were in critical condition after being stabbed.
French police and firefighters work after a teacher was killed and several others injured in a knife attack at Lycee Gambetta-Carnot high school in Arras, northern France, Oct. 13. 2023. Reuters
A school staff member said the attacker was specifically looking for the history teacher and that he did not appear to be simply trying to settle a personal dispute.
Julie Duhamel, an official with the Unsa teachers’ union in the Pas-de-Calais region that includes Arras, told the Franceinfo outlet that teachers had become aware of Mogouchkov’s radicalization “a few years ago.”
The suspect’s phone conversations in recent days gave no indication of an imminent attack, leading intelligence officials to conclude that he suddenly decided to act, intelligence services told The Associated Press.
The worst attack on Israel in 50 years: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches its biggest attack on Israel in 50 years.
More than 1,300 Israelis have been killed, more than 3,000 injured and at least 100 taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli cities.
Hamas terrorists are seen taking women hostage and parading them through the streets in a gruesome video.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and promised Hamas would pay an “unprecedented price.”
Gaza health officials reported at least 1,400 Palestinians killed and more than 6,000 wounded.
One of Mogouchkov’s brothers was arrested in the summer of 2019 by France’s counterterrorism intelligence service on suspicion of involvement in planning the failed attack and is in prison, French intelligence said.
French President Emmanuel Macron went to the site of the attack in Arras along with the interior and education ministers.
Macron paused in front of the blanket-covered body of the teacher, who was in the parking lot in front of the school. Pools of blood were visible as forensic experts worked around the body.
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest news on Hamas attacks on Israel
Macron then went to meet school students in an adjacent building.
Hundreds of police officers were deployed around the school and nearby neighborhoods, including heavily armed units, and cordoned off a wide perimeter around the school.
Friday’s attack echoed the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty in October 2020 at the hands of an 18-year-old radicalized Chechen man.
Follow The Post’s coverage of Israel’s war with Hamas
Prosecutors said they were considering charges of terrorism-related murder and attempted murder against Mogouchkov.
France’s National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, held a minute’s silence for the victims of the Arras attack at the opening of its Friday session.
Vice President of the National Assembly Naima Moutchou said the gathering “expresses its solidarity and thoughts for the victims, their families, and the education community when we learn that a teacher has been killed and several others have been injured.”
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
