France on Alert: Security Level Raised After School Knife Attack

• French Prime Minister elevates counter-terrorism alert after fatal teacher stabbing and two other serious injuries.
• 7,000 soldiers deployed for increased security.
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• Louvre Museum temporarily closed.

After a fatal stabbing of a teacher and the serious injury of two others, the French Prime Minister has elevated the nation to its highest state of counter-terrorism alert.

This ‘attack emergency’ level has been activated in previous counter-terror situations, allowing for increased security measures and public alerts.

In response, 7,000 soldiers were deployed for heightened security, and even the Louvre Museum in Paris was temporarily closed for safety.

The Palace of Versailles was evacuated due to a bomb threat received through an anonymous online message. Officials suspect a connection between the attack at Gambetta high school and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, amid growing tensions within France’s Muslim and Jewish communities.

The attacker, identified as 20-year-old Russian national Mohamed Mogouchkov of Chechen origin, was known to security services for his involvement with Islamist extremism, which had raised concerns during his time as a former pupil at the school.

Several members of the assailant’s family, including a 17-year-old brother, his mother, a sister, and an uncle, were also taken into custody.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne made this urgent decision following a security meeting with President Emmanuel Macron.

Earlier Mr. Macron visited the school and condemned the “barbarity of Islamist terrorism”. He called on French people to stay “united” in the face of the attack, to “not give in to terror or let anything divide us”.