Louvre and Versailles emptied as France raises guard after stabbing

PARIS – Thousands of troops have been deployed to guard sensitive locations across France, and the Louvre Museum and the Palace of Versailles were evacuated in separate security alerts, as the country remained on edge on Saturday after the

killing of a schoolteacher in a stabbing attack

that the authorities described as an act of Islamic terrorism.

France has been under its highest terrorist threat level since Friday, when the teacher, Ms Dominique Bernard, was killed at a school in Arras, in northern France.

A suspect was quickly arrested at the scene: Officials said he was a former student of Ms Bernard’s and had already been under surveillance as a potential Islamic extremist.

On Saturday morning, the Louvre, the world’s most visited art museum, ushered visitors out and closed its doors in response to “a written message that there was a risk”, said Ms Coralie James, a spokeswoman for the museum.

“In the current national context,” she added, the museum had decided to shut for the day, “while we carry out the necessary checks”.

And on the outskirts of Paris, another treasure of French heritage, the Palace of Versailles – built for King Louis XIV – was also evacuated, police said on Saturday afternoon.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, they said a suspicious package had been found.

Earlier in the day, the authorities announced the mobilisation of troops dedicated to responding to a potential terrorist attack.

French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X that up to 7,000 soldiers were being deployed to strengthen security at sensitive sites, at the request of President Emmanuel Macron.

The suspect in Ms Bernard’s stabbing was identified by officials as Russian immigrant Mohammed Moguchkov, born in 2003.

Besides killing Ms Bernard, who taught French literature, the attacker also injured a physical education teacher and two other school employees.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on TF1 television on Friday that intelligence services had recently been tipped off that the suspect had been in touch with other radicalised people, including his brother.

Raising the threat level in the country was a precaution, Mr Darmanin said, and the authorities had not detected any specific threats.

But, he added, there was “probably” a link between the attack and the current conflict between Israel and Hamas – part of an “extremely negative atmosphere”.

AFP reported that since the Hamas militant group’s attack on Israel on Oct 7, 189 anti-Semitic acts have been reported in France, resulting in 65 arrests. Twenty-three of those arrested were foreigners. NYTIMES