PARIS — A teacher has been killed and several people wounded in a knife attack Friday at a school in the northern French city of Arras, local media report.
The French interior minister has confirmed a police operation was ongoing and that the attacker has been arrested.
According to several media reports, the attack took place inside the Gambetta high school at 11 a.m. on Friday. The attacker is reportedly of Chechen origin who is on the French police register for radicalized individuals. He is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack.
French President Emmanuel Macron is heading to the scene according to the Elysée Palace, as well as Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Education Minister Gabriel Attal.
The anti-terrorist branch of the prosecutor’s office is in charge of the investigation into the attack.
The attack comes three years after another attack against a school in the Paris suburbs where a teacher was beheaded by a Chechen extremist.
France has been on high alert since Hamas launched a shock attack on Israel, killing over 1,200 people and kidnapping dozens into Gaza. French police have been dispatched to protect Jewish schools and places of worships amid a spate of antisemitic acts.
