France is deploying thousands of extra soldiers after a teacher was killed in a knife attack at a school in the northern French town of Arras on Friday. The French government announced this on Saturday morning, international media report. Up to seven thousand soldiers, part of the Sentinelle anti-terrorist unit, will be deployed by Monday evening to carry out security patrols and secure public places, among other things.
After the attack on the school, which also injured two other teachers, France raised the threat level to the highest level. The suspected perpetrator is a 20-year-old man of Chechen descent who was arrested shortly after the stabbing. He is a former student of the school and, together with his brother, was on a French list for radicalized people.
During a visit to Arras, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that police had thwarted a second attack at another location in the country that same day. He also called the attack the result of “barbaric Islamic terrorism.” According to Gérald Darmanin, the French Minister of the Interior, there is a link between the fatal stabbing and the war between Israel and Hamas.