France on terror alert after teacher’s murder

A man in his twenties killed teacher Dominique Bernard and seriously wounded three others at the school he used to attend.

Members of the public adds to a floral memorial at the Gambetta high school in Arras, northeastern France on Saturday. Picture: AFP

France was on high alert on the weekend after an attacker stabbed a teacher to death in what the President called an act of “Islamist terror”, prompting the deployment of thousands of troops and the temporary closure of several renowned tourist sites.

Friday’s attack took place in the northeastern town of Arras, home to large Jewish and Muslim populations. A man in his twenties killed French teacher Dominique Bernard and seriously wounded three others at the school he used to attend.

On Saturday, amid fears the conflict between Israel and Hamas could lead to violence in foreign capitals, France announced it would deploy up to 7000 soldiers under the its highest alert level.

Warnings of new attacks led to the evacuation of two of France’s best-known monuments, the Louvre and Palace of Versailles.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin later said that following checks, there had been “no real threat” against the sites. But since the Hamas militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7 there was “an atmosphere of jihadism”.

Since then, 189 anti-Semitic acts have been reported in France, resulting in 65 arrests, 23 of whom were foreigners.

Police arrested the suspected perpetrator of Friday’s attack, ­Mohammed Moguchkov, who had cried the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar!” (God is greatest). He was among 11 people being held in custody on Saturday, a police source told AFP, including his 17-year-old brother and several other family members.

“This school was struck by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism,” President Emmanuel Macron said after visiting the site. The victim, Bernard, had “probably saved many lives” with his courage in blocking the attacker, he said.

Mr Darmanin later said there was “probably a link between what’s happening in the Middle East and this incident” in Arras.

The national anti-terrorist prosecutor announced it had opened an investigation. French officials have said that Moguchkov was Russian, born in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia.

He was already on a French national register as a potential security threat and under electronic and physical surveillance by France’s domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI, Mr Darmanin said.

That was because of links with his father, who was also on the list and was deported in 2018.

His brother had also been imprisoned for an attack on the Elysee Palace in 2018.

Mr Moguchkov had been detained on Thursday by the DGSI “to check whether he had a weapon” and to check his phone, Darmanin added. But he ruled out any “flaw in the intelligence services”.

Mr Bernard, was stabbed in the throat and chest. Among those wounded were a school security guard who was stabbed multiple times and is fighting for his life.

AFP