French schools hold a moment of silence in an homage to a teacher killed in a knife attack

PARIS (AP) — Schoolchildren and educators will hold a moment of silence in French schools on Monday after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded last week in an attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization.

The homage on Monday afternoon will also pay tribute to another teacher, Samuel Paty, killed exactly three years ago near his Paris area school. He was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen later killed by police.

In a message to teachers and other school workers posted on X, formerly Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron said “we took action, we are taking action and we will continue to take action to ensure that school remains a sanctuary for our students and for all those who work there.”

“To blind hatred, we will always oppose the inextinguishable thirst for teaching. The thirst for knowledge. The thirst for living free,” he added.

The French government heightened the national threat alert and ordered up to 7,000 soldiers to be deployed by Monday night and until further notice to bolster security and vigilance around France.

Counterterrorism authorities are investigating Friday’s stabbing, and the suspected assailant and several others are in custody, prosecutors said. The suspect had been under recent surveillance by intelligence services for radicalization. Court documents viewed by The Associated Press show he is from the Ingushetia region in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains, which neighbors Chechnya.

The prosecutor said the alleged assailant was a former student there and repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” during the attack. Prosecutors are considering charges of terrorism-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.

The dead educator was Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher in the northern city of Arras at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrols students ages 11-18. Another teacher and a security guard were in critical condition with wounds from the stabbing, police said. The counterterrorism prosecutor said a cleaning worker was also injured.