Lionel Gougelot (correspondent in Pas-de-Calais) / Photo credit: DENIS CHARLET / AFP 13:54 p.m., October 13, 2023

Hours after a knife attack that killed a teacher and injured three others at a high school in Arras, Pas-de-Calais, students, parents and teachers are in shock. One history teacher even said that he wanted to intervene before being dissuaded because of the dangerousness of the individual.

A scene of horror and then dread. This Friday morning, around 11 a.m., a man burst into the Gambetta high school in Arras in the Pas-de-Calais region. Armed with a knife, he killed a teacher and wounded three others. Listed as S, he is said to be a former student of Chechen origin who shouted "Allah u Akbar" at the time of committing his act. On the spot, the shock is colossal, both on the part of the teaching staff, but also of the students and parents.

In front of the high school were several dozen, if not hundreds, of students who were not inside the school at the time of the attack. Families have also gone to the site to wait, since about 12 p.m., for the students who have been confined indoors to leave. Faced with this particularly distressing situation, parents burst into tears and one mother even lost consciousness in the face of the extent of the emotional shock experienced, the retrospective fear for her young teenager who attends this high school.

"Don't go! It's very dangerous."

Testimonies from teachers and students have been pouring in for several minutes. A history teacher, who partly witnessed the attack, recounted the attack on a staff member of the school by the assailant. "At that moment, I wanted to intervene very quickly by telling him 'but it's not possible, you can't do this' and I saw that he was chasing me. The person who was with me said, 'Don't go, he's very dangerous, he's got knives, you don't stand a chance.' So I turned around and had to walk away. I barricaded myself behind a glass door." According to the teacher, the young assailant returned to the yard and attacked the teacher, who eventually succumbed to his injuries.

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So there is a lot of confusion around this high school. Parents are waiting for news and students in lockdown are waiting to be able to leave the school in a climate of great anxiety. A security perimeter has been set up around the establishment and even enlarged by the police. Emmanuel Macron is expected to arrive in the afternoon.