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.
“Liberation day” was due to be on 1 April. But Donald Trump decided to shift it by a day because he didn’t want anyone to think it was an April fool.
It is no joke for him and it is no joke for governments globally as they brace for his tariff announcements.
It is stunning how little we know about the plans to be announced in the Rose Garden of the White House later today.
It was telling that we didn’t see the President at all on Tuesday. He and all his advisers were huddled in the West Wing, away from the cameras, finalising the tariff plans.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is the so-called ‘measured voice’. A former hedge fund manager, he has argued for targeted not blanket tariffs.
Peter Navarro is Trump’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing. A long-time aide and confidante of the president, he is a true loyalist and a firm believer in the merits of tariffs.
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His economic views are well beyond mainstream economic thought – precisely why he appeals to Trump.
The third key character is Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary and the biggest proponent of the full-throttle liberation day tariff juggernaut.
The businessman, philanthropist, Trump fundraiser and billionaire (net worth ranging between $1bn and $2bn) has been among the closest to Trump over the past 73 days of this presidency – frequently in and out of the West Wing.
If anything goes wrong, observers here in Washington suspect Trump will make Lutnick the fall guy.
And what if it does all go wrong? What if Trump is actually the April fool?
“It’s going to work…” his press secretary said when asked if it could all be a disaster, driving up the cost of living for Americans and creating global economic chaos.
“The president has a brilliant team who have been studying these issues for decades and we are focussed on restoring the global age of America…” Karoline Leavitt said.
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2:52
‘Days of US being ripped off are over’
Dancing to the president’s tune
My sense is that we should see “liberation day” not as the moment it’s all over in terms of negotiations for countries globally as they try to carve out deals with the White House. Rather it should be seen as the start.
Trump, as always, wants to be seen as the one calling the shots, taking control, seizing the limelight. He wants the world to dance to his tune. Today is his moment.
But beyond today, alongside the inevitable tit-for-tat retaliation, expect to see efforts by nations to seek carve-outs and to throw bones to Trump; to identify areas where trade policies can be tweaked to placate the president.
Even small offerings which change little in a material sense could give Trump the chance to spin and present himself as the winning deal maker he craves to be.
One significant challenge for foreign governments and their diplomats in Washington has been engaging the president himself with proposals he might like.
Negotiations take place with a White House team who are themselves unsure where the president will ultimately land. It’s resulted in unsatisfactory speculative negotiations.
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6:03
Treasury minister: ‘We’ll do everything to secure a deal’
Too much faith placed in the ‘special relationship’?
The UK believes it’s in a better position than most other countries globally. It sits outside the EU giving it autonomy in its trade policy, its deficit with the US is small, and Trump loves Britain.
It’s true too that the UK government has managed to accelerate trade conversations with the White House on a tariff-free trade partnership. Trump’s threats have forced conversations that would normally sit in the long grass for months.
Yet, for now, the conversations have yielded nothing firm. That’s a worry for sure. Did Keir Starmer have too much faith in the ‘special relationship’?
Downing Street will have identified areas where they can tweak trade policy to placate Trump. Cars maybe? Currently US cars into the UK carry a 10% tariff. Digital services perhaps?
US food? Unlikely – there are non-tariff barriers on US food because the consensus seems to be that chlorinated chicken and the like isn’t something UK consumers want.
Easier access to UK financial services maybe? More visas for Americans?
For now though, everyone is waiting to see what Trump does before they either retaliate or relent and lower their own market barriers.
A man inside Mandalay has told Sky News bodies remain under “collapsed and inclining” buildings after the Myanmar earthquake – as a woman was freed from rubble after 91 hours.
The local inside Myanmarsaid many of the structures in the city were wrecked or badly damaged after the 7.7 magnitude quake on Friday, adding: “There are some bodies, some dead bodies, that still remain and other destruction”.
Meanwhile, in a televised address, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing said the number of dead had risen to 2,719 and is expected to exceed 3,000.
Some 4,521 people have been injured, while a further 441 are missing.
More than 10,000 buildings are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar, the World Health Organisation said.
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0:41
Before and after: Myanmar earthquake
Smell of dead bodies near destroyed buildings
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was close to the quake’s epicentre, 50 children and two teachers were killed when their preschool collapsed, the United Nations said.
The local in the city told Sky News that “a lot of local assistance associations like charity groups are still struggling with digging out the corpses, the dead bodies, from the destruction”.
He said that “when we pass near the destructions, the collapsed building or very damaged building, we can smell” dead bodies.
“The smell of the dead bodies after four days… it still remains,” he said, before adding: “For the social assistance association… they need permission [to give aid] especially from the government.
“If they don’t have permission, then they cannot do anything.”
Image: People sheltering in a makeshift tent camp in Mandalay. Pic: Reuters
He also said others in Mandalay are struggling after the earthquake, which followed the city being affected by cyclones, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the civil war in Myanmar – where a junta seized power in a coup in 2021.
“Some people, they say they have nothing at all,” the local added. “They have no more home, they have no more belongings, because its already damaged.”
Woman freed after 91 hours under rubble
It comes after the fire department in Myanmar’s capital freed a woman trapped under rubble 91 hours after the building collapsed.
The 63-year-old woman was freed early on Tuesday in Naypyidaw.
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As the country continues to recover, a worker from the International Rescue Committee said people fear aftershocks and are sleeping outside on roads or in open fields.
Communities are struggling to meet basic needs such as access to clean water and sanitation, and emergency teams are working “tirelessly” to locate survivors and provide aid, the UN said in a report.
Rescue efforts have been complicated by the civil war, as rebel groups say the junta has conducted airstrikes, even after the quake, while NGOs fear that certain areas could be denied vital supplies.
“Myanmar’s military has a longstanding practice of denying aid to areas where groups who resist it are active,” said Joe Freeman, a researcher with Amnesty Myanmar.
“It must immediately allow unimpeded access to all humanitarian organisations and remove administrative barriers delaying needs assessments.”
The father of a paramedic killed by Israel in Gaza has told Sky News he would have been on the mission to rescue wounded colleagues, but was ill that day and so his son went instead.
“It was supposed to be me, you know. I was on duty that night but fell ill and sent him in my place.”
Speaking at his son’s funeral, Hassan Abu Hileh said Israel is to blame for the death of Mohammed and the other 14 men.
Image: Hassan Abu Hileh’s son Mohammed was killed when Israeli forces said they ‘opened fire on suspicious vehicles’
“We need protection from the international community. We need protection for medical teams. We are medics-soldiers of duty, not armed fighters. We carry out humanitarian work. If I see someone who needs medical attention, I’m obligated to serve them,” he said.
The bodies of the Red Crescent and United Nations workers went missing around eight days ago. Despite repeated requests to search for them, all denied by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the UN eventually found 14 bodies buried under sand in a mass grave. One is still missing.
They were still wearing their uniforms.
Image: Funerals took place on Monday for medics killed in Gaza. Pic: Reuters
The director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza has accused Israel of murdering the emergency workers. “We arrived at the scene of the crime to retrieve the bodies and found that all of them had been shot directly in the upper part of their bodies and buried,” said Dr Bashir Murad.
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“The ambulances were also destroyed and buried.”
Image: Dr Bashir Murad, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza, said the workers had been shot
The bodies were found in sand in the south of the Gaza Strip in what Jonathan Whittall, Gaza head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, called a “mass grave”, marked with the emergency light from a crushed ambulance.
Mr Whittall posted pictures and video of Red Crescent teams digging in the sand for the bodies and workers laying them out on the ground, covered in plastic sheets.
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1:22
Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has denied killing innocent medical workers and said Israeli forces opened fire on suspicious vehicles that were travelling without coordination and in an active combat zone.
“The IDF did not randomly attack an ambulance on March 23,” claimed a spokesman.
“Last Sunday, several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles.
“Earlier that day, cars that did not belong to terrorists were coordinated and passed safely on the same route.”
We have asked the IDF why the bodies were found in a mass grave but have received no comment.
More than 400 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the UN.
According to the UN, at least 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed in the 18 months since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The UN is reducing its international staff in Gaza by a third because of safety concerns.