French Interior Minister Rushes Back to Paris After Teacher Beheaded in Suspected Terror Attack

The French had barely recovered from their emotions after the cleaver attack that took place near the former premises of Charlie Hebdo, when they had to face another brutal attack. The victim in this case is a history-geography teacher at the Bois d’Aulne college, who would have, during a lesson, shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. A gesture that he will have paid with his life. The assailant is an 18-year-old from Chechnya who committed this crime in public with a kitchen knife.

The events took place around 5 p.m. The young man fled, but was soon spotted by anti-crime police officers, still carrying the kitchen knife with which he killed the teacher. Faced with his aggressiveness and his refusal to put down his weapon, the young man was shot dead by the police. The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for "assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise and criminal terrorist conspiracy".

The French are shocked by this new attack and demand more security from their authorities. The Minister of the Interior, who was visiting Morocco to discuss the draft law against separatism, returned in a hurry. Emmanuel Macron, accompanied by Jean-Michel Blanquer and Marlène Schiappa, respectively Minister of National Education and Minister Delegate for Citizenship, arrived around 9 p.m. at the Bois d’Aulne college. For the President of the Republic, the history-geography teacher was the victim of a "characterized Islamist terrorist attack". The same reaction in the National Assembly, where the deputies denounced a "abominable attack". Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, for his part, wrote on Twitter that "it is the Republic that is being attacked".