This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/world/europe/france-decapitate-beheading.html

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
French Police Shoot and Kill Man After a Fatal Knife Attack on the Street French Police Fatally Shoot Man Who Beheaded Victim on the Street
(32 minutes later)
PARIS — A knife-wielding man decapitated a teacher near a school in a suburb north of Paris on Friday afternoon and was later shot dead by the police, according to officials quoted by French media. PARIS — A knife-wielding man decapitated a teacher near a school in a suburb north of Paris on Friday afternoon and was later shot dead by the police, officials said, in a confrontation that quickly escalated into a trauma that captivated all of France.
A police officer with knowledge of the attack confirmed French media reports that the victim was a teacher at a local school who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class. The officer requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. A police officer with knowledge of the attack confirmed French media reports that the victim was a history teacher at a local school who had shown caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class. The officer requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.
France’s antiterrorism prosecutors immediately took over the investigation, and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin cut short a trip to Morocco to fly back to Paris. France’s antiterrorism prosecutors immediately took over the investigation, and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin cut short a trip to Morocco to fly back to Paris. President Emmanuel Macron went to the scene, according to the Élysée, seat of the presidency.
There was little other information about either the victim, the attacker or the incident, which took place in the suburb of Eragny, immediately available. Little other information was immediately available about the victim, the attacker or the attack itself, which took place in the suburb of Eragny. But the underlying themes conjured up France’s recent history of terrorist attacks.
A police union official told the French television station BFM on Friday that witnesses saw the assailant cutting the victim’s throat. The decapitation came three weeks after a knife-wielding man wounded two people in Paris near the site of the former Charlie Hebdo office — the scene of a 2015 terrorist attack targeting the satirical newspaper for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that became the focus of a criminal trial.
The national police were called, officials said, and after discovering the decapitated victim, confronted the assailant nearby, close to a school. On Friday, a police union official told the French television station BFM that witnesses had seen the attacker in Eragny cutting the victim’s throat and shouting “Allahu akbar” — God is greatest.
The national police were called, officials said, and after having discovered the decapitated victim, confronted the assailant nearby, close to a school.
Brandishing a large knife, he threatened the officers, and after refusing to surrender, was shot 10 times, they said.Brandishing a large knife, he threatened the officers, and after refusing to surrender, was shot 10 times, they said.
A prosecutor from the country’s special antiterrorism unit was immediately sent to investigate, officials said.A prosecutor from the country’s special antiterrorism unit was immediately sent to investigate, officials said.
The killing of the teacher quickly took on national proportions Friday evening. Representatives in France’s parliament rose to “honor the victim’s memory,” said the president of the session, parliamentary deputy Hugues Renson.
“The assassination of a history teacher is an attack on freedom of expression and the values of the republic,” the president of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, said on Twitter. “To attack a teacher is to attack all French citizens and freedom,” he said.
“A teacher was killed just for doing his job,” Sophie Venetitay, a teachers’ union official, told BFM. She said the teacher taught a course on freedom of expression, during the course of which the caricatures were shown, “and that seems to have been at the origin of this tragedy.”