A terror attack that left a schoolteacher dead is linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, France’s interior minister has said.
Gerald Darmanin said France would also be placed on its highest level of security alert after the suspected Islamist attack.
Police arrested a Russian-born Chechen shortly after a teacher was killed at a secondary school in the northeastern city of Arras, 115 miles (185 km) north of Paris.
Image: French police secure the scene in Arras
Three other people were wounded in the incident.
A day before the attack, the suspect had been held by police for questioning on suspicion of radicalism, Mr Darmanin added.
Image: Schoolchildren leave the Gambetta high school. Pic: AP
‘We did our job seriously’
Security services had, he said, been monitoring the man since the summer over suspected Islamic radicalisation, and, after listening to his phone calls for several days, decided to question him.
Insisting the intelligence services “did our job seriously”, Mr Darmanin said investigators found no sign he was preparing an attack.
“There was a race against the clock. But there was no threat, no weapon, no indication,” he said.
The suspect, identified by prosecutors as Mohamed M, was reportedly refusing to speak to investigators.
His younger brother was among “several” others also in custody, national counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said.
Police could not confirm local media reports, which originated from one of the first officers on the scene, that the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” – which means “God is great” in Arabic – before the stabbing.
Image: A mother of a student outside the Lycee Gambetta-Carnot high school in Arras
French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack “barbaric Islamic terrorism”
Standing near to where the attack happened, Mr Macron paid his respects to the dead teacher, named by local media as French language teacher, Dominique Bernard.
Image: A police officer holds an assault rifle outside the Gambetta high school in Arras. Pic: AP
Mr Macron said: “[He] stepped in and undoubtedly saved a lot of lives himself.
Insisting the school would be open on Saturday, he added: “Our choice is made not to give in to terror, not to let anything divide us.”
The suspect, born in 2003, was a former student of the Lycee Gambetta high school where the attack happened, a police source said.
Image: French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the media after the knife attack. Pic: AP
A teacher, a security guard and a cleaning worker were critically injured and were fighting for their lives in hospital following the knife attack.
Residents have been advised by local authorities to avoid the centre of the city, which is about 30 miles south of Lille.
Students were reportedly locked down in the school during the incident.
None of the children were physically harmed during the attack, according to reports.
Arras is shocked and bewildered and wants answers
In the heart of Arras, not far from a pedestrianised shopping precinct, there are hundreds of armed police officers.
French President Emmanuel Macron has come to town, along with two of his most trusted lieutenants – the interior and education ministers.
But the atmosphere is one of shock and sadness.
As I arrive, guided through a police cordon, I see a man walking away, his arm draped around his subdued teenage daughter.
The Lycee Gambetta stands ahead of us. It is a forgettable building, softened by tall trees. But now, it is surrounded by police vans and incident tape.
What happened at the school was horrendous – a knife attack of particular savagery that has shaken people here.
I spoke to one student outside the school, a thoughtful sixth-former called Remi.
He told me Arras was a quiet, safe town. “I’d say it was chilled,” he said – and that he had been shocked when he heard the news of the attack: “Why would you do something like that? Why would have so little value for a human life?”
The question is why?
Why did this man do something so brutal? Was it an isolated incident, was it inspired by the conflict in the Middle East, or by the ongoing resonance of the murder of Samuel Paty, almost exactly three years ago.
Was he motivated by Islamist fury, or by some other grievance. Arras, like the French nation, wants answers but at the moment, this town reverberates simply to shock, bewilderment and sadness.
‘He told us to get out’
Local media quoted one pupil as saying: “We came out of class to go to the canteen, and we saw the guy with two knives attacking the teacher, who had blood on him.
“He tried to calm him down and protect us. He told us to get out, but we didn’t understand. We ran, and others went back upstairs.”
A security alert was sparked later at another school in Arras.
A third man was reportedly arrested in that incident when he tried to enter the school with a suspicious rucksack.
Education Minister Gabriel Attal has urged schools across France to “immediately take all measures” to increase security.
Naima Moutchou, a vice president of France’s National Assembly, expressed “solidarity and thoughts for the victims, their families and the educational community” on behalf of the assembly’s representatives.
Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.
While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.
The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.
Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.
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Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.
Image: US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters
Trump holds trade deal talks – reports
It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indianand Israelirepresentatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.
The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.
Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.
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China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.
Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.
Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.
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6:50
Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.