France raises terror alert level after teacher’s assassination
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Palace of Versailles in France on Saturday (Oct 14) after a bomb threat, according to AFP. A police source said that an anonymous message was received on the website moncommissariat.fr.
This is the second major tourist attraction in France to be targeted by a terror alert on Saturday, after the Louvre Museum was also closed.
The Louvre Museum was also closed the same day after a bomb threat. Hundreds of people were evacuated. The threat was later found to be a false alarm, but the museum remained closed for the rest of the day.
France raised its Vigipirate alert level to “emergency attack” on Saturday, the highest level of the security device, which allows the exceptional mobilisation of anti-terrorist means, after the assassination of a teacher who was stabbed in front of a high school in the city of Arras (northern France) by a young man. This attack was called a “terrorist act of Islamism” by French President Emmanuel Macron.
After the tragic attack, the Elysee Palace announced the deployment of 7,000 soldiers on French territory.
There was also an alert in the Polish capital, where a man climbed onto the monument dedicated to the Smolensk tragedy and claimed to have a bomb in his backpack that he would detonate. The police blocked the entire area. In the end, the individual was detained and no explosive device was found on him.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
