00:00 Claire, you've been speaking with people at the school.
00:03 What can you tell us about what you're hearing from them?
00:07 Well, I can tell you I just walked about 10 minutes ago in front of the school, which
00:12 you can make out behind me, just after those police vans, there is still a body bag outside
00:18 the school.
00:19 That inside is the body of a French teacher who was killed.
00:23 And I just spoke to a philosophy teacher who told me how he experienced the attack.
00:29 The attacker was inside the school at that moment in the courtyard.
00:33 And the attacker asked him, are you a history teacher?
00:36 Now the philosophy teacher told me that for him, that meant that the attacker was making
00:40 a kind of parallel, looking for a history teacher.
00:43 And of course, we know Samuel Paty, who was murdered three years ago in a suburb not far
00:49 out of Paris.
00:50 He was a history teacher too.
00:51 And it falls on history and geography teachers in France to teach what they call civics lessons
00:56 to students.
00:57 And that of course includes secularism.
01:00 France is a version of secularism, which separates the states from the church and of course protects
01:06 freedom of speech.
01:07 So I spoke to that teacher.
01:08 He's clearly quite shaken up.
01:10 He's been a philosophy teacher here for the last five years.
01:12 He said he didn't know the French teacher who was killed outside the school particularly
01:17 well, but he knows of him.
01:18 And all the other teachers said that he was a very kind, excellent teacher, very much
01:24 respected.
01:25 The philosophy teacher I just spoke to also confirmed to me that all the students are
01:28 out of the school right now.
01:30 And of course, you can imagine the scenes that were here earlier on.
01:33 I spoke to a police officer as well a little earlier on.
01:35 He said that he had 300 sets of parents in front of them, all terrified trying to find
01:42 out if their children inside the school were safe.
01:43 And the police officer also seemed a bit shaken up when I spoke to him, said he'd never in
01:48 his career had to deal with something like that.
01:50 300 sets of parents looking at him, asking for information to try and find out if their
01:55 children were safe.
01:56 Of course, we do know that no children at the school were injured.
02:00 But of course, one of the teachers, a French teacher, been killed, another agent who works
02:05 at the canteen, seriously injured, and another teacher as well who's also in hospital right
02:10 now.
02:11 Claire, an absolutely nightmare scenario for any parent.
02:15 We don't know at this time whether the assailant had any sort of personal connection to this
02:21 teacher, though he is said to be a former student at the school.
02:26 We do know that he was on a security watch list here in France.
02:32 And this is a controversial list.
02:34 Can you tell us more about it?
02:36 Yes, he was what we say in France, "fiché S," which means he was on this watch list.
02:43 He was being closely followed by the authorities.
02:46 Chechen origin, born in Russia, came to France when he was five, one of five siblings.
02:53 His older brother is actually behind bars at the moment.
02:56 He was convicted in a plot to attack the Elysee Palace, the presidential palace here in France.
03:03 Now, that plot was foiled, and his older brother is currently behind bars.
03:06 We also know that the attacker, his younger brother, his 16-year-old younger brother,
03:11 has been arrested.
03:12 He was outside a different school institution as well in the town of Arras.
03:17 A little bit more to tell you about the family.
03:19 And this is where things are going to get very controversial in the next few days here
03:24 in France.
03:25 We know that this family had been living in Brittany, and they were set to be expelled
03:30 from France because they didn't have the right paperwork.
03:32 Now, some associations launched a campaign to try and keep them in France.
03:38 They were really -- they were almost on the way to the airport.
03:40 They were going to be expelled from France.
03:41 France was back about 10 years ago.
03:44 And in the end, they were able to stay.
03:47 They moved to Arras, and the father was later expelled.
03:51 But the mother and her five children stayed here in France.
03:55 So, of course, there will be many questions asked in the next few hours, in the next few
03:59 days about how this family was able to stay here.
04:03 We do, of course, know that the attacker was being closely watched by the security services.
04:07 It was very clear that there was a reason to watch him.
04:11 But, of course, no one here in the town of Arras that I have spoken to could ever have
04:16 imagined such a drama to take place in this quite sleepy northern town in the north of
04:21 France.
04:22 Of course, this was also a town where, just a few months ago, when we saw big urban violence,
04:26 riots across France in many different towns, Arras stayed quiet.
04:31 There weren't big riots and urban violence here.
04:34 Of course, today, the town is really, really shaken up.
04:38 And Claire, President Emmanuel Macron rushed to the scene.
04:43 We just heard him speak.
04:44 But can you tell us a little bit more about the government and security presence there?
04:50 Well, you might be able to make out behind me, the security presence is extremely, extremely
04:57 intense and tight.
04:58 We can't get any nearer to the building.
05:01 I don't know if you can make out those trees, but the building just behind it, the large
05:05 cream-coloured building, that is this very large school establishment.
05:09 There's a middle school as well as a lycée.
05:12 So that's the last three years of school.
05:14 And then there's also, and this was where the attacker was enrolled, there's also a
05:18 kind of after-school programme for technical schools, technical skills and competences
05:23 that children can learn once they've gone past the age of 18 but want to carry on learning
05:29 skills.
05:30 So it's a really big school establishment.
05:32 Under the trees there, that is where, about ten minutes ago, I saw the body bag containing
05:37 the body of the French teacher who was struck down, who was stabbed to death by the attacker.
05:43 And you can see, of course, we can't get any closer.
05:45 This is as close as we can possibly get.
05:48 You can see the police vans have been double-parked.
05:51 All the students are out of the building now.
05:54 They were let out, very filtered in a very, very gradual way to make sure that everyone
05:59 was out safely.
06:00 They are all, of course, now out of the building.
06:03 And I've been speaking again to another teacher.
06:05 Usually there are lessons at the school on a Saturday morning.
06:08 The school opens on a Saturday morning.
06:10 It's looking very likely that the school will not open tomorrow morning to classes.
06:14 But that's something we're still waiting confirmation for about whether the school will open again
06:18 tomorrow morning on Saturday or whether it'll be next week.
06:21 And Claire, just to let you know, and our viewers, Emmanuel Macron did say that in fact
06:26 the school will be open tomorrow.
06:28 He said that this is an effort to show that terror cannot win in France.
06:33 Claire Paquelin reporting from Arras.
06:35 Thank you so much.
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