A series of bomb threats continues to keep France on edge after the highest terror alert level was imposed. Just like the day before, a number of regional airports were temporarily evacuated on Thursday due to bomb threats. The airports of Montpellier, Nantes, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Lille were affected. Euro Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in France also reported a bomb threat, causing flight operations to be temporarily suspended.
A government plane belonging to President Emmanuel Macron was also at Lille airport during the lockdown. In nearby Arras, Macron attended the memorial service for the teacher killed by an Islamist attacker last Friday.
Attacker claimed responsibility for IS
The funeral service at Arras Cathedral was broadcast on a screen in the town hall square, where hundreds of people paid their last respects to the 57-year-old teacher and laid flowers. The teacher confronted the attacker with other school employees, who were injured, and thus probably prevented worse.
The 20-year-old knife attacker claimed responsibility for the Islamic State terrorist militia and expressed his hatred for France, the French and democracy in an audio message. After the attack, France imposed the highest terror alert level and mobilized 7,000 soldiers from the anti-terrorist unit ‘Sentinelle’.
Dozens of bomb threats throughout France
So far, the police have not been able to discover anything suspicious after the dozens of bomb threats in France, which mainly affect schools. Police attributed the threat to a school in the Paris area to four young people, including an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old student, the newspaper ‘Le Parisien’ reported. It is not known who is behind the threats, which also hit the Louvre in Paris and the Palace of Versailles for the fourth time on Thursday.
The crime in Arras took place almost exactly three years to the day after teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded near Paris. The perpetrator at the time felt insulted by the treatment of Mohammed caricatures in class. On Monday, a minute’s silence was held at all French secondary schools in memory of Dominique Bernard and Samuel Paty.
Source: Krone
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