A teacher in France has been beheaded in a street near his school after showing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his class. The attacker, an 18-year-old of Chechen origin, was shot dead by police after firing at them with an airgun.
The victim, Samuel Paty, 47, taught history and geography at the College du Bois d'Aulne in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. Anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said the suspect waited outside the school and asked pupils to point out the teacher before following him and inflicting multiple knife wounds to the head.
The attacker, named as Abdoulakh A., was born in Moscow and came to France with refugee status as a boy. He lived in Évreux, about 100km from the scene, and had no apparent connection with the teacher or school. He had only minor misdemeanour charges on his record.
Witnesses reported hearing the attacker shout 'Allahu Akbar' during the attack. He then posted images of the victim on Twitter, along with insults to President Emmanuel Macron and French 'infidels'. Mr Paty had been the target of threats since showing the cartoons during a class on freedom of speech, linked to the Charlie Hebdo case.
Ten people have been arrested, including a parent who had complained about Mr Paty's actions and produced videos calling for protests. President Macron described the attack as an 'Islamist terrorist attack', saying the teacher was murdered for teaching freedom of expression. The education minister said the root of the killing was 'hatred of the Republic'.
