A teacher has been killed and two people have been seriously injured in a knife attack at a school in France, officials say.
France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the attack happened at the Gambetta high school in the northern city of Arras at about 11:00 local time.
A French language teacher was killed, while another teacher and a security guard were injured.
The attacker has been arrested and is now in custody. According to witnesses, he shouted „Allahu Akbar” during the attack. The man, described as being in his 20s, is of Chechen origin and known to the security services for his involvement with radical Islam, according to police.
French media reports say he was a former pupil at the school.
The French anti-terror prosecutor’s office says it has opened an investigation following the attack for „murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and „attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
News channel BFMTV has reported that the brother of the attacker has also been apprehended by police.
Police say the situation is now under control, reports the BBC.
The attack comes amid rising tensions in France’s sizeable Muslim and Jewish communities due to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and nearly three years since the murder and beheading of another teacher, Samuel Paty, at his school outside Paris.
However, police have said there is nothing to indicate a direct link with the Middle East.
