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France deploying 7,000 troops after deadly school stabbing by suspected Islamic radical

Published:Saturday | October 14, 2023 | 10:16 AM
Police officers stand guard outside the high school where a man stabbed a teacher, Saturday, October 14, 2023, in Arras, northern France. A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by French security services over suspected Islamic radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and wounded three other people Friday in Arras. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Schaeffer)

ARRAS, France (AP) — France will mobilise up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded in a school attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalisation, the president's office said Saturday.

Some schoolchildren, parents and personnel returned to the Gambetta-Carnot school in the northern city of Arras as it reopened Saturday morning to reconnect and seek support, after the attack Friday that rattled France in a context of global tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

Counterterrorism authorities are investigating the stabbing, and the suspected assailant and several others are in custody, prosecutors said.

The suspect had been under recent surveillance by intelligence services for radicalisation.

Court documents viewed by The Associated Press show he is from the Ingushetia region in Russia's Caucasus Mountains, which neighbours Chechnya.

Authorities had initially identified him as Chechen.

The French government heightened the national threat alert, and President Emmanuel Macron ordered up to 7,000 soldiers deployed by Monday night and until further notice to bolster security and vigilance around France, his office said.

The “attack emergency” threat posture allows the government to temporarily mobilise the military to protect public places among other measures.

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