France woke up on Saturday in a state of attack alert, the day after the murder of a French teacher in front of a middle school in Arras, stabbed to death by a young man listed for radicalization, an act described as “Islamist terrorism” by President Emmanuel Macron.
Up to 7,000 soldiers from the Sentinelle force (anti-terrorist fight) will be deployed in the territory “by Monday evening and until further notice”, announced the Élysée on Saturday, the day after the attack in three days of the commemoration of the assassination of Samuel Paty.
This history and geography teacher was beheaded on October 16, 2020, shortly after leaving his college in the Paris suburbs, for showing caricatures of Mohammed during a lesson on freedom of expression.
The Arras attack also occurs in an “extremely negative atmosphere” due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, underlined the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, affirming that there was a “link between what he undoubtedly happened in the Middle East and the act of the assailant.
Versailles and the Louvre evacuated
The Palace of Versailles was being evacuated on Saturday afternoon after a bomb threat, AFP learned from police sources.
The bomb threat came via an anonymous message on the website moncommissariat.fr, a source close to the matter told AFP. This same source indicated that the monument would not reopen today.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, has decided to raise the Vigipirate alert level to the “emergency attack” level, the highest of this security system, which allows the exceptional mobilization of resources, her services indicated on Friday evening.
The Louvre Museum was evacuated and exceptionally closed on Saturday at midday, “for security reasons”, after having received “a written message reporting a risk”, said a spokesperson for the museum.
The principal of the Gambetta school complex, in the center of Arras, decided to reopen the establishment on Saturday for students and teachers “who wish”, according to President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the site Friday.
In front of the bereaved middle school, high school students who came to pay their respects were still in shock on Saturday.
“It’s better to leave the high school open, so that everyone can come, talk, to mourn,” said Camille, 17, a high school student who witnessed the attack. A way of showing that we must “resist terrorism”.
The Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, who announced the deployment of 1,000 security personnel in schools, indicated that he would go to Arras on Saturday.
Throughout France, 500 establishments will be open on Saturday, and a “moment of union and contemplation” is planned for Monday, said Mr. Attal.
A minute of silence was observed on Friday evening before the kick-off of the Netherlands-France football match.
At least ten people were taken into custody, including the attacker and two of his brothers, a police source said. One was already incarcerated after his conviction for his participation in a planned attack, this source said.
Arrested the day before
The attacker took the action during the break between classes at 11:00 a.m. local time on Friday.
The killed victim, Dominique Bernard, a French teacher at the college, “first intervened, and undoubtedly saved many lives himself”, underlined Emmanuel Macron, calling on the French to “stand together” in the face of “the barbarity of Islamist terrorism”.
Originally from Arras, father of three grown-up daughters and married to a teacher, this 57-year-old associate professor of modern literature was “appreciated by his students and his colleagues”, according to testimonies collected by AFP.
He was killed in front of the establishment, where another teacher was also injured, said anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard, in charge of the investigation, on Friday evening.
The assailant, Mohammed Mogouchkov, registered for radicalism and who was the subject of recent monitoring by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), then circulated in the middle school.
He attacked “a technical agent who he injured with several stab wounds, and a maintenance agent who was also injured,” Mr. Ricard said.
The right urged the government to establish a “state of emergency”, while the far right pointed out “flaws” and called for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior.
Mohammed Mogouchkov, aged around twenty, was under surveillance, and the DGSI arrested him the day before the incident “to check if he did not have a weapon on him” and to “look at his phone and particularly encrypted messaging,” indicated Gérald Darmanin.
Born, according to the French administration, in the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Ingushetia, he arrived in France in 2008, according to a police source of Russian nationality.
His father, also on S file, was deported in 2018 according to Mr. Darmanin, but he could not legally be, because he entered France before the age of 13.