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CRIME

France raises terror alert after killing of teacher

France raised its alert level on Friday after an attack that killed a teacher at a school in the town of Arras in northeastern France, the office of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told AFP.

France raises terror alert after killing of teacher
French President Emmanuel Macron (C), flanked by Pas-de-Calais Prefect Jacques Billant (3rdL), Education Minister Gabriel Attal and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin at the school in Arras on Friday. Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP

The level was upped after a security meeting attended by President Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening, the office said.

Earlier on Friday a man of Chechen origin stabbed to death a teacher and severely wounded two other adults in the town of Arras.

LATEST: What we know so far about the French school terror attack

Speaking at a press conference on Friday evening, interior minister Gérald Darmanin said the attack was “undoubtedly linked” to the situation in Israel and Palestine.

Earlier, Macron has said that security services foiled a second attack on Friday, believed to be in the greater Paris region.

Darmanin added that eight people are now in custody in relation to the Arras attack, including the attacker and his brother – both of whom had previously been placed on a terror watchlist for extremism.

The attacker had been under “active surveillance” by French security services since late July. 

“This school was struck by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism,” Macron said after visiting the school in Arras, saying the victim had “probably saved many lives” with his courage in seeking to block the attacker.

The suspected attacker, Mohammed Moguchkov, who is in his 20s, is from Russia’s mainly Muslim southern Caucasus region of Chechnya, but had lived in France since he was a child.

Moguchkov cried the Arabic phrase “Allahu akbar!” (God is greatest!), according to the preliminary elements of the investigation.

The victim, a French teacher named by media as 57-year-old Dominique Bernard, was stabbed in the throat and chest.

Those wounded were a member of non-teaching staff who was stabbed multiple times and is fighting for his life and a sports teacher who is in a less serious condition.

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POLICE

French police officer charged over fatal shooting

French authorities charged a police officer with voluntary manslaughter after the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man as he fled a police traffic check.

French police officer charged over fatal shooting

It was the latest case of alleged police violence against suspects that has sparked protests in recent years by critics citing heavy-handed tactics, particularly against minorities.

After the police officer was taken into custody on Sunday, she was ‘presented to an examining magistrate’ and ‘charged with voluntary manslaughter’, said state prosecutor Gauthier Poupeau.

“The police officer has been placed under strict judicial supervision,” prohibiting her from travelling and from working as an officer, he added.

Last year, France was shaken by rioting over the killing outside Paris of a teenager by a policeman during a traffic check.

READ ALSO Thousands march against police violence in France

On Sunday, the young man killed was among three people in the car when police tried to stop them for speeding near Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, said another state prosecutor, Pierre-Yves Marot.

The driver ‘did not obey the warnings’, refused to stop and sped away before being forced to halt by a second police car.

All three occupants of the vehicle attempted to flee.

One person escaped while another was detained and charged on suspicion of robbery because the vehicle had been reported as stolen.

“The third person, a 19-year-old from Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, was confronted by officers from the second patrol and knocked into one of them while trying to flee,” the prosecutor’s office said.

“The officer then used a stun gun” while a colleague drew and “used her service weapon, fatally striking him in the chest”.

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