Le Parisien presents him as Mohammed M. at this stage. The alleged perpetrator of the stabbings which killed the teacher of a high school in Arras this Friday was arrested just after the incident.
Precision is now a sad classic of scenes of attacks or attacks in France. The assailant who stabbed the teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot high school in Arras this Friday, October 13, reportedly shouted “Allah Akhbar” before throwing himself at several people according to AFP. The teacher who was fatally injured was a French teacher who allegedly tried to intervene.
Arrested shortly after the events, the author of the attack, presented as Mohammed M. by Le Parisien, is said to be a young man of Chechen origin, born in Russia. He is also a former high school student, on S file for radicalization and monitored by the DGSI, according to a police source cited by the daily.
The author of the knife attack in Arras was also checked the day before the incident according to BFMTV, without any offense having been noted. He was the subject of “multiple intelligence techniques” adds the news channel, but his recent telephone conversations had not revealed a desire to take action soon.
Le Monde confirms that “since this summer”, he was notably “placed under surveillance and physically monitored” by internal security. But he is akin to “a radicalized individual whose potential is known but who suddenly decides to take action, making his neutralization difficult.”
These elements seem in any case to be taken seriously, in addition to the circumstances of the Arras attack, since the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has announced that it is taking up the case. The national anti-terrorism package announced for its part that it would open an investigation into “assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise”, “attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise” and “terrorist criminal association with a view to preparing crimes of to people”.
The anti-terrorism sub-directorate of the National Directorate of the Judicial Police (SDAT), the National Directorate of the Judicial Police (DNPJ) and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) are in charge of the investigations.
The brother of the alleged perpetrator of the knife attack was also arrested. The police arrested him near another school. The man was not in possession of a weapon according to initial information.
For the moment, the exact reasons for Mohammed M.’s gesture have not been revealed. Act of a purely terrorist nature, resentment towards his former high school, the teaching staff or the targeted professor in particular? A high school sports teacher interviewed by Voix du Nord, who was the attacker’s teacher three years ago, in any case spoke of “a solitary student, with whom we could speak but who was withdrawn”.
Another professor, this time of philosophy, provides a semblance of a clue. While he was watching the scene, he explains that he tried to intervene but was pursued by the attacker who asked him if he was a history and geography teacher. It is also the discipline taught by Samuel Paty, murdered just three years ago or almost in front of his college in Conflans-Sainte Honorine. A course on freedom of expression, as part of a moral and civic education course, which depends in particular on history teachers, was at the origin of the attacker’s action…
