Terror Inquiry Opened After French Teacher Beheaded

A teacher has been beheaded in a suburb north-west of the French capital Paris, with the attacker shot dead by police.

The teacher had shown pupils in his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which are considered by Muslims to be blasphemous, according to a police source.

France’s anti-terror prosecutor said it was investigating the attack, which took place in Conflans Sainte-Honorine, a suburb north-west of Paris.

The suspected attacker was spotted by a police patrol while carrying a knife a short distance from the scene of the attack.

A source said that witnesses had heard the attacker shout “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is Greatest”.

French Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said he had set up a crisis centre to deal with the attack, and was keeping President Emmanuel Macron informed.

France has over the past several years seen a series of violent attacks carried out by Islamist militants.

A trial is under way in Paris of alleged accomplices in the deadly 2015 attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Three weeks ago, a Pakistani man attacked and wounded two people outside the former offices of the magazine.

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