- Title: France's Macron arrives at scene where teacher's throat was slit
- Date: 16th October 2020
- Summary: CONFLANS SAINTE HONORINE, FRANCE (OCTOBER 16, 2020) (REUTERS) FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON VISITING SCENE OF ATTACK, SURROUNDED BY OFFICIALS POLICE CORDON/POLICE CAR POLICE OFFICER WALKING TOWARDS COLLEAGUES POLICE CAR PARKED NEAR CORDON VEHICLE DRIVING PAST POLICE CAR MORE OF POLICE CAR PARKED NEAR CORDON
- Embargoed: 30th October 2020 19:14
- Keywords: France Macron attack stabbing
- Location: CONFLANS SAINTE-HONORINE, FRANCE
- City: CONFLANS SAINTE-HONORINE, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime,Europe
- Reuters ID: LVA001D0DPYKN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A man armed with a knife on Friday (October 16) killed a middle school history teacher by slitting his throat in front of his school in a suburb of Paris, police said, in an attack that was being treated as terrorism.
The attacker was shot dead by a police patrol a few streets away. The teacher had shown pupils in his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which are considered by Muslims to be blasphemous, according to a police source.
France's anti-terror prosecutor said it was investigating the attack, which took place in Conflans Sainte-Honorine, a suburb north-west of Paris. President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the scene on Friday evening, a Reuters live feed showed.
The incident carried echoes of the attack five years ago on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. It published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, unleashing an issue that is still casting a pall over French society.
Less than a month ago, a man originally from Pakistan used a meat cleaver to attack and wound two people who were on a cigarette break outside the offices where Charlie Hebdo was based at the time of the 2015 attack.
In Friday's attack, a police source said that witnesses had heard the attacker shout "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Greatest." A police spokesman said that information was being checked.
Another police source also said the victim had been decapitated in the attack, but this was not confirmed. The attack took place in the street in front of the middle school where the victim worked.
A Twitter thread posted on Oct. 9 contained allegations that a history teacher in Conflans Sainte-Honorine had shown pupils cartoons purporting to depict the Prophet Mohammad.
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