A French teacher, who had recently shown students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, was beheaded outside his school on Friday in what President Emmanuel Macron called a “terrorist attack”. Al Jazeera reports
The assailant, whose identity has not been established, was shot by police as they tried to arrest him and later died of his injuries, police said.
Early on Saturday, a judicial source told AFP news agency that four people, including a minor, have been arrested in connection to the attack, which took place in the Conflans Sainte-Honorine suburb northwest of Paris.
Those held were related to the assailant. The French anti-terrorism prosecutor opened an investigation into Friday’s incident.
A police official – speaking on the condition of anonymity to The Associated Press – said the suspect, armed with a knife and an airsoft gun, was shot to death by police about 600 metres (656 yards) from where the male middle school teacher was killed.
The teacher had received threats after opening a discussion “for a debate” about the caricatures about 10 days ago, the police official said.
He had shown pupils in his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which are considered by Muslims to be blasphemous, according to a police source.
The attack took place in the street in front of the middle school where the victim worked.
French anti-terror prosecutors said they were treating the assault as “a murder linked to a terrorist organisation” and related to a “criminal association with terrorists”.
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