All times Paris time (GMT +2).
16:37 Why can't the attacker be deported?
Mohammed M. cannot be immediately deported because he arrived in France before the age of 13.
Under French law, certain foreign nationals "with particularly close ties to France" are protected against administrative deportation and judicial deportation orders. For example, foreigners who have been resident in France since the age of 13, those who have been resident in France for more than 20 years, those who have been in France for more than 10 years and who are the spouse of a French citizen or the parent of a French minor, or those who hold a "sick foreigner" residence permit, benefit from absolute protection. They can only be deported in cases of terrorism, incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence, or an attack on the state's fundamental interests.
16:02 What is the FSPRT, the register that the attacker was on?
FSPRT stands for "Fichier des Signalements pour la Prévention de la Radicalisation à caractère Terroriste" – a database of reports made about people in order to prevent radicalization of a terrorist nature.
This register was created in 2015 and is run by France’s counter-terrorism unit UCLAT. It is, in the government's own words, a "collaborative database shared with several ministries involved in the fight against terrorism and violent radicalization". To put it plainly, the aim of this database is to share information about people who are suspected of having been radicalized, and to ensure that they are followed up. It brings together all of the information available about a certain person who may be being radicalized or radicalizing someone else, particularly when they appear likely to want to travel abroad or show a desire to "take part in terrorist activities".
Targets at the "top of the register", who present a high degree of danger, are systematically dealt with by the DGSI (France’s homeland security). Those who do not seem to be about to take violent action may be monitored by a different agency depending on their place of residence: by the Paris Police Prefecture Intelligence Directorate (DRPP) when they live in Paris or some parts of the Greater Paris region, or by the Central Territorial Intelligence Service (SCRT) when they live elsewhere in France.
The FSPRT's "S" files are important tools of investigation. In France, someone who is on this register is considered "fiché S". It means they are of high interest to the country's security agency because they may pose a serious threat. Their "S" file will contain information and data obtained during checks carried out by the security services, which are then forwarded to the relevant specialist departments.
15:30 Gabriel Attal to meet with teachers' unions this evening
French Education Minister Gabriel Attal has invited all the teachers' unions to a crisis meeting at the Ministry of Education on Friday evening. According to union sources contacted by Le Monde, at the meeting they will discuss the conditions under which pupils will go back to school on Saturday and Monday (some schools in France open for Saturday school), as well as organizing a tribute to the victim of the attack.
Unlike after the murder of Samuel Paty on October 16, 2020, which happened just before the fall school vacation, all primary and secondary school pupils will be back in class on Monday.
15:20 'Work is not supposed to kill you'
"We're in shock. Just a few days before the anniversary of Samuel Paty's death, we're shaken. Schools are once again being targeted, because they embody the values of the Republic: liberty, equality and fraternity", Agnès Andersen, general secretary of the ID-FO union of school heads, told AFP.
The attack in Arras took place almost three years to the day after Samuel Paty was murdered on October 16, 2020, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in the Paris region by a Russian refugee, for showing his pupils Mohammed cartoons in class as part of a lesson on freedom of expression. The death of the 47-year-old history-geography teacher, decapitated near his school, was a traumatic event for the teaching profession.
Sophie Vénétitay, General Secretary of the Snes-FSU, the leading secondary school union, said, "We realize that three years after Samuel Paty's murder, there are still teachers being killed in the workplace for doing their job. It's simply unacceptable, and the whole country is really going to have to mobilize to protect its schools, because schools are obviously a target. We're really going to need a reaction to match."
"Work is not supposed to kill you," said Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, general secretary of SE Unsa, also told AFP.
15:14 "My son said to me 'Dad, I want to change schools'"
Adeline Morel found out about the attack when her daughter rang her from her hiding place. "She was speaking very softly and was terrified. I left work right away," she said. A student in her second year at the Lycée Gambetta-Carnot in Arras, the teenager was leaving the school "because she had forgotten something at home. A sports teacher shouted at her to hide". Since then, the mother has been waiting for her and her younger brother, aged 11, who also attends the school, to be allowed to leave. "No particular problems here," she assures us.
She tried to dispel rumors that were circulating, such as a false report that another attack had taken place simultaneously at the nearby Lycée Savary: "I called a friend of mine who works there. Nothing happened."
Another couple is waiting outside the school for the eldest of their three children. The father, Jean-François Dubernay, works in logistics. "I had finished work when we heard about the attack". It was his wife, Samira, who "heard it on TV". They spoke quickly on the phone, and since then have been communicating by text with their 15-year-old son: "He's fine, and so is his class. He just said to me: 'Dad, I want to change schools.'"
The Franco-Moroccan couple are already worried about what's to come. The father, a Muslim, said that "just like after Charlie [Hebdo, the name of a French satirical newspaper that was targeted by a terrorist attack in 2015], I'm going to be asked if I agree or not. People mix everything together. And what's more, now with Hamas and Israel..." Samira, his wife, said: "It's our children who are going to have to put up with this. We know what to say. But it's hard for them."
15:07 Minute of silence
Lawmakers at the Assemblée Nationale observed a minute of silence.
L'Assemblée nationale observe une minute de silence en hommage aux victimes de l'attaque au couteau d'#Arras. #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/2VPfXWCofV
— LCP (@LCP) October 13, 2023
15:05 Assailant cannot be deported due to protected status
According to an interior ministry source, Mohammed M. is a Russian national, born in Russia in 2003 and who arrived in France in 2008. On March 5, 2021, he applied for asylum, which was declared inadmissible by OFPRA, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons. He challenged the decision, lodging an appeal with the National Asylum Court on April 23, 2021, which was also rejected.
As Mohammed M. entered France before the age of 13, he cannot be deported. A new immigration bill proposed by Gérald Darmanin would lift this automatic protection given to people who entered France before the age of 13.
15:03 Emmanuel Macron arrives at the school
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived at the Lycée Gambetta this afternoon. He went into the school with Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and the Education Minister Gabriel Attal. He is set to meet with staff and emergency services before making a public announcement.
14:51 One of the attacker's brothers was part of a cell of radical Islamists and had been arrested in 2019
One of Mohammed M.'s brothers was arrested in 2019 at the age of 17 in Strasbourg, according to Le Monde’s information. He was part of a cell of five radical Islamists, sympathizers of the Islamic State terrorist organization, who planned to kill police officers, particularly those on duty outside the Elysée Palace. Intelligence services suspected him of having been responsible for distributing a video pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group on behalf of the commando group, which was dismantled by France’s national security agency the month before in the Paris region.
14:20. The attacker was actively being surveilled by France's anti-terrorism agency
The attacker, Mohammed M., was stopped by police yesterday "without being charged", according to a police source. According to our information, he was under active surveillance by the DGSI, France's General Directorate for Internal Security. Since the summer, the attacker had been wiretapped and physically monitored by France's security agency. However, according to a police source, his profile is one of "a radicalized individual whose potential [to act] is known, but who suddenly decides to act, making it difficult to neutralize him".
14:19 Rescue workers on site
14:01 Attacker is on a register
The attacker is on a register of people with potential links to terrorism and radicalization.
One of his brothers was convicted in April of criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism, and is currently in prison.
13:23 Education minister calls for 'immediate' reinforcement of school security
Gabriel Attal on Friday called on French education authorities to immediately "take all measures" necessary "to reinforce the security of all schools and establishments" in France, in a statement issued by the ministry of education.
"Vigipirate measures [...] must be applied. Any situation must be immediately reported to the ministerial crisis unit", states the education ministry’s message.
13:19 A high school philosophy teacher describes the attack
A philosophy teacher who witnessed the attack, Martin Dousseau, described to Agence France-Presse a moment of panic in between classes, when students were confronted by an armed man.
"He attacked a canteen staff member. I tried to intervene and he turned to me, chased me and asked me if I was a history-geography teacher," he said. "We barricaded ourselves in, then the police arrived and immobilized him." According to him, the victim is a French teacher at the school.
A teacher was killed and two other people severely wounded on Friday, October 13, in a knife attack at a school in the town of Arras in northern France, police and regional officials said.
A security agent was stabbed multiple times and a teacher was wounded, but is in a less serious condition, a police source told Agence France Presse (AFP). No student at the school was hurt, said another police source.
Local police said that the situation was contained and no longer posed a danger to the public. School pupils and teachers were confined to the school premises.
In videos posted on social media, several people can be seen trying to subdue the assailant in the schoolyard, using a chair as a shield. Determined, the assailant kicked, punched and used what appeared to be a bladed weapon. He was arrested shortly afterward, as was his brother, who is not yet known to be involved in the attack, a police source told Le Monde.
According to several police sources, the perpetrator is of Chechen origins. Julie Duhamel, departmental secretary of the SE-Unsa Pas de Calais teachers union, was able to gather information from teachers at the Lycée Gambetta in Arras, "an ordinary high school" with over 1,600 pupils in the town center. According to her, the assailant is a former student of the school. "The educational team had already reported the young man for radicalization, when he was a student", said Duhamel, interviewed by Le Monde.
France immediately opened a terror investigation into the attack, National Anti-Terrorsim prosecutors said. The country has suffered a series of attacks by Islamist extremists since 2015.
Most recently, the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty in broad daylight in 2020 near his school in a Paris suburb by a radicalized Chechen refugee led to a wave of shock and renewed debate about the influence of radical Islam. The attack in Arras comes almost three years to the day after the murder of Paty on October 16, 2020.
In a statement issued by the French Ministry of Education on Friday, Gabriel Attal called on education authorities to "take all necessary measures" without delay "to reinforce the security of all schools and educational establishments" in France.
The attack comes with tensions rising in France, which has large Jewish and Muslim communities, after last weekend's attack by Hamas on Israel.
The Elysée Palace announced that Emmanuel Macron will be visiting Arras in the next few hours. At the same time, the French Assemblée Nationale announced that it was suspending its proceedings in solidarity with the victims. Education Minister Gabriel Attal will join Emmanuel Macron on site. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has canceled a trip to Orléans and is returning instead to Paris.