French Schools Placed Under Guard After Islamist Terror Threats

More than 130 French schools have been placed under armed guard due to Islamist terror threats over a national ban on religious clothing.

The Jean-Perrin Lycée in Rezé, near Nantes, was evacuated on Thursday, March 28, after students received videos of beheadings directed to an online portal for pupils, parents, and staff.

A 26-year-old guy was detained for threatening to kill the headteacher at the Maurice-Ravel Lycée in eastern Paris after police were called to patrol the school.

The resignation provoked outrage in France, where worries about the safety of teachers have increased in the wake of two teachers who were killed in incidents connected to Islamic terrorism.

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France has vowed to fight back, having instituted its prohibition on religious clothing in schools two decades ago in an effort to uphold secular culture. Gabriel Attal, the prime minister, promised to file a complaint alleging slander and false charges against the student and two other individuals at the Maurice-Ravel Lycée.

Mr Attal stated last week that the country’s security alert level had been raised to the highest level following the attack on the Moscow concert hall.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre on March 22, in which gunmen stormed a public event and opened fire on civilians with automatic weapons, killing at least 143.

It comes amid a series of terror threats directed at schools across the country, with culprits sending bomb threats to secondary schools and causing evacuations.

According to a police source, a secondary school in the Seine-et-Marne department east of Paris got a message last week stating that explosives had been buried around the establishment “in the name of Allah”.

Last week, at least five additional high schools in the western portion of the Greater Paris area, located in the department of Yvelines, also received bomb threats.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told reporters, “The terrorist threat is real, it’s strong.” He also mentioned that this year, two plans by alleged Islamic extremists had already been foiled.