France on high alert, to deploy 7,000 soldiers after teacher's murder

France on Saturday said it will deploy up to 7,000 soldiers after declaring a top-level alert following the fatal stabbing of a teacher by a man in his twenties, who also severely wounded three others at the school he used to attend.

The attack took place on Friday in the northeastern town of Arras, home to large Jewish and Muslim populations. The victim was a French teacher named Dominique Bernard.

Police arrested the suspected attacker, Mohammed Moguchkov. He was among 10 people being held in custody on Saturday, a police source told AFP, including several members of his family.

Authorities have suggested a probable link to the ongoing violence in the Middle East.

Operation Sentinelle

The deployment of the soldiers from Operation Sentinelle will be completed by Monday evening, according to the Elysee presidential palace.

Sentinelle is a French military operation involving the deployment of soldiers, police and gendarmes since the aftermath of the January 2015 attacks to protect parts of the country deemed sensitive from terrorism.

Macron said another attempted attack in a region near Paris had been foiled by security forces.

According to the interior ministry, the president was referring to the arrest of a "radicalised" man who was arrested leaving a prayer hall in the Yvelines region bordering Paris for carrying a prohibited weapon.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin later said there was "probably a link between what's happening in the Middle East and this incident" in Arras.

France upped its alert level to the highest position following a crunch security meeting chaired by Macron on Friday, the prime minister's office told AFP.

The national anti-terrorist prosecutor announced that it has opened an investigation.

Moguchkov was already on a French national register as a potential security threat, a police source told AFP, and under electronic and physical surveillance by France's domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI.

Bernard was stabbed in the throat and chest. Among those wounded were a school security guard who was stabbed multiple times and is fighting for his life, and a teacher in a less serious condition.

A cleaner was also hurt, according to anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard.

No pupils at the school were hurt.

The attack comes almost three years to the day after the October 16, 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty near his school in a Paris suburb.

Police say Moguchkov's 17-year-old brother was detained close to another school.

The pupils and teachers had been confined to the school premises before being allowed out in the afternoon.

Moment of panic

Martin Dousseau, a philosophy teacher who witnessed the attack, described a moment of panic during break-time, when schoolchildren found themselves face-to-face with the armed man.

"He attacked canteen staff. I wanted to go down to intervene, he turned to me, chased me and asked me if I was a history and geography teacher," Dousseau said.