Teacher Killed in Suspected Terror Attack in France

A man armed with a knife killed a teacher and wounded two others on Friday at a high school in northern France, an attack being investigated as potential terrorism. Antiterror prosecutors said they were leading the investigation into the attack at the Gambetta high school in the city of Arras, some 115 miles north of Paris, the AP reports. Sliman Hamzi, a police officer who was one of the first on the scene, said the suspected attacker, a former student at the school, shouted "Allahu Akbar"—"God is great" in Arabic.

Hamzi said he was alerted by another officer who was passing in front of the high school and called in. He "was shouting 'someone is attacking with a knife,'" Hamzi said. Hamzi said he rushed to the school and saw the victim who died lying on the ground outside the school, and the attacker being taken away. "Colleagues arrived quickly but unfortunately couldn't save the victim," Hamzi said. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that the suspected attacker had been arrested. President Emmanuel Macron was heading to the scene along with Darmanin and the education minister, and the government asked authorities to heighten vigilance at all schools across France.

The motive was not immediately clear. It came amid heightened tensions around the world over Hamas' weekend attack on southern Israel and Israel's military response, which have killed hundreds of civilians on both sides. There have been calls in Muslim nations for mass protests after Friday prayers over Israel's intense bombing campaign in Gaza. On Thursday, Darmanin ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts since the Hamas attack. (More France stories.)