A man who was known to French authorities as a security risk went on a stabbing spree at a school on Friday, killing one and injuring two more, according to authorities.
The 20-year-old suspect was from Russia’s “mainly Muslim southern Caucasus region of Chechnya,” and he shouted “Allahu akbar!” during the attack, according to AFP.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed in a statement that the attack was the result of “barbaric Islamist terrorism.”
The attack happened in the northern French city of Arras inside the Gambetta High School around 11 a.m. local time.
A teacher was killed, a security guard was critically wounded, and another teacher was stabbed who is reportedly in a less serious condition.
“The teacher who was killed had come forward to protect others and had without doubt saved many lives,” Macron added.
POLITICO Europe reported that the suspect’s name was Mohammed Mogouchkov and that he was “under police surveillance before the attack and on the police register of radicalized individuals.”
One of the suspect’s brothers was arrested in 2019 “on suspicion of being involved in the planning of an attack that was thwarted and is in jail,” according to a report from the Associated Press. Police arrested another suspect on Friday near a different school in what was being described as a potential second attack.
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Martin Dousseau, a teacher who witnessed the attack, said in an interview with local media that the attacker “turned toward a staff member of the school, the head cook I believe and injured him, and stabbed him several times.”
“I was then chased by him, and asked me ‘are you a history teacher?’” he continued. “Luckily we were near a glass door of the school, and we locked ourselves inside.”
The Islamic terrorist attack comes after the former leader of Hamas urged Muslims worldwide to hold a “day of rage” on Friday.
French police banned pro-Palestinian protests in the country this week following the calls for a “day of rage” after Palestinian terrorists murdered more than 1,300 Israelis in terrorist attacks in Israel last weekend.