France has declared an “emergency” after a knife attack in Arras, in the north of the country, in which a teacher was killed and two people were seriously injured, amid fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could continue. This was announced by the Prime Minister’s office on Friday evening, AFP reports.

Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne has “decided to raise the urgent alert of an attack”, her office said after a security meeting at the Elysee Palace with President Emmanuel Macron.

The “emergency attack” level can be entered immediately after an attack or if an identified and unidentified terrorist group begins to operate.

Believers and representatives of the Muslim community on Friday strongly condemned the “barbaric” attack in which a man shouting “Allah Akbar” killed a teacher and seriously injured two others at a secondary school in Arras.

“We share the shock and pain caused in our country by this heinous act, which we strongly condemn,” Chams-Eddin Hafeez, the head of the Grand Mosque in Paris, said in a statement, expressing his “shock” and “horror.” at the same time “terrorist attack”.

“In our Muslim culture, as in the history of our country, teachers occupy a special and fundamental place that makes any attack on their physical and moral integrity intolerable,” he added in a statement.

The French Council of the Muslim Cult (CFCM) “strongly” condemned the “criminal and vile” attack, which “reawakens deep wounds” three years after the murder of Samuel Pati.

As for the phrase “Allah Akbar,” it has been “abused” and “raised by some as a slogan of terrorist cowardice and barbarism,” according to the CFCM, which called for “strengthening our unity in the fight against murderous ideologies that may influence some of our youth people who have lost their orientation”.

The attack came amid fears that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could spill over into France. In front of the Grand Mosque in Paris, where they came for Friday prayers, some worshipers expressed their concern.