French teacher killed, two staff members injured in stabbing at high school

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- A French teacher was stabbed to death and at least two people were seriously injured Friday in an attack at a high school in the northwestern city of Arras, authorities said.

Confirming the attack, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said it occurred at the Gambetta School in the city about 155 miles northwest of Paris and that police had arrested a suspect.

A security guard was hospitalized in critical condition with several stab wounds and a second teacher was less seriously injured.

The suspect said to be in his 20s and of Chechen descent is alleged to have shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is greatest" as he attacked the staff members.

Media in France are reporting that he is a former Gambetta High student. Police said he was known to security services due to his radical Islamic views and associations, according to police.

Police reportedly also arrested the suspect's brother.

The anti-terror prosecutor's office confirmed it had launched murder and attempted murder investigations that it was treating as terror incidents.

The Elysee Palace said French President Emmanuel Macron was en route to the school while the National Assembly halted parliamentary business as a mark of solidarity with those targeted in the attack.

Education union SUD said it was sickened and outraged by the attack.

"We learn with horror and fear of the assassination of a teacher in his workplace. Our thoughts are with his family, loved ones, colleagues and students," the trades union group wrote in a social media post.

In 2020, at least six people were stabbed to death in France in a series of attacks including high school teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in the Paris suburbs by a man authorities said was a refugee of Chechen origin.

Police shot and killed the attacker. Four of his family members were among 10 people arrested in connection with the killing.

Authorities said Paty had shown his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a discussion of 2015 attack on offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a supermarket in which 17 people were killed.