French police in Essonne have arrested a man who was overheard threatening teachers at a school, stating he wanted to “avenge” the Islamic prophet Mohammed.
The incident took place on Wednesday outside a primary school in the commune of Athis-Mons, some 14 miles outside of Paris.
A police source stated that “a teacher heard threats twice as she was taking a break outside the school”, newspaper Le Figaro reports.
“The man said to those present: ‘By Allah, the prophet, I will avenge you, these filthy teachers will pay for it’,” the police source said. A local police union general-secretary confirmed the suspect’s arrest took place the same day.
Jean-Jacques Grousseau, Mayor of Athis-Mons, said that the police had been fully mobilised over the incident and have been investigating and securing local schools.
The incident comes just weeks after French teacher Samuel Paty was murdered and beheaded on the streets of the commune of Conflans-Saint-Honorine, about 20 miles outside of Paris.
Paty was killed by a Chechen teen refugee who had been motivated by the fact the teacher had shown cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed to his class during a lesson on freedom of speech, the drawing having been published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Since the attack, other teachers have come forward to speak out about the spread of Islamist ideas in their schools among their pupils.
One teacher in the Paris no-go suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis claimed that he tried to show his class a video of Pakistanis burning French flags in response to the Charlie Hebdo cartoons and his class cheered.
“Their big argument is the so-called double standard they present by comparing incomparable things,” the teacher said and added: “For example, they do not understand that criticism of the prophet of Muslims may be allowed while doubting the Holocaust is not.”