French school where teacher was stabbed is evacuated after bomb threat

A French school where a teacher was stabbed to death last week has been evacuated due to a bomb threat.

France were left rocked last week when a Chechen refugee stabbed a school teacher while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ which came just days after fighting escalated in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas militants.

Schools all over France were scheduled to hold a minute silence in memory of French language teacher Dominique Bernard who sadly lost his life after being confronted by the 20-year-old.

Bernard’s murder came on the same day that a former leader of the Hamas group called on Muslims all over the world to demonstrate in their own ways on ‘a day of jihad‘ but it remains unclear if this influenced the knife attack.

France school evacuated amid bomb threat

While the Gambetta high school may have thought the worst was over and that they could at least spend a few days mourning the loss of their much-loved teacher, however, a bomb threat scuppered those plans.

The high school was not actually open today for lessons and teaching, however, doors were not shut as pupils and teachers were welcomed to pay their respects and lay flowers in memory of Bernard, but many were forced to cut those actions short.

This is because French police received a bomb threat via their website, which saw a bomb squad put together and sent to the high school to evacuate everyone away from the building so a thorough search could take place.

Le collège lycée Gambetta d’Arras évacué en raison d’une alerte à la bombe. Les pompiers, la police et les militaires de Sentinelle sont sur place. Les démineurs sont attendus. Des élèves ont encore leur fleur à la main qu’ils n’ont même pas eu le temps de déposer. #Arras pic.twitter.com/D7hQDG55qD

— Samuel Cogez (@SamuelCogez) October 16, 2023

There appeared to be no bomb on site, so the threat seems to have come with no substance, however, given the tensions and nervousness in and around France right now, everything will have to be taken extremely seriously.

The same school where teacher was stabbed experiences worrying bomb threat

President Emmanuel Macron has called for a ‘ruthless’ approach to extremists in France in the wake of this latest terrorist attack, which also came almost three years to the day since Samuel Paty was beaded outside of the school where he taught.

Mohamed Mogouchkov was already on a French national register and highlighted as a potential security threat which saw him under surveillance by France’s domestic intelligence agency.

Mogouchkov’s father was deported from France back in 2018 but he was also on the same list and the accused’s brother – who has also been arrested – has already been in prison for 18 months for distributing ISIS propaganda online with Mogouchkov being known as an ISIS sympathiser.

So, questions may now start to be asked about why more wasn’t done to take action against Mogouchkov given he was on the watchlist and members of his family were as well and if more had been done by the police, a life may well have been saved.