Terrorism alert in France: 130 schools and high schools threatened and dozens of frustrated attacks

Less than three months before the start of the Olympic Games on its territory, France decreed on Sunday evening the “urgency of attack alert”, the maximum status in the face of the terrorist threat. A follow-up to the actions of ISIS K, the Islamist group that attacked Russia, but to which it is no stranger 47 attacks that they managed to dismantle French secret services since 2017.

When President Emmanuel Macron and his Security Council met emergencyly on Sunday evening, the public was unaware of the threats aimed at French high schools and colleges.

“Given the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the attack and the threats weighing on our country, we have decided to raise the status of Vigipirate to its highest level: emergency alert attack,” the French president wrote on X.

Macron ordered this to be established “technical contacts” with Russia to exchange information on terrorism. From French Guiana announced on Monday that Daech (ISIS) attempted to operate in France again.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal assured on Monday afternoon that, since the beginning of the year, “two attack plans were “foiled””, as part of the fight against terrorism. A total of 47 attack plans have been foiled in France since 2017.

Schools and high schools are threatened

This Monday the authorities revealed that, in total, “Nearly 130” high schools and colleges “have been targeted since last week of threats of attacks and “malicious acts” by the ORL, in the regions of Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and Grand Est,” as the Ministry of National Education reported on Monday.

A few days after similar messages in the academies of Lille, Amiens and Ile-de-France, a dozen institutes of the Reims academy were threatened with attacks, through their digital workspaces (ENT), the rector indicated on Monday March 25.

The affected middle and secondary schools, whose accounts were hacked during the night between Sunday and Monday, are located in the Marne, Ardennes, Aube and Haute-Marne, the press release reads.

Video of the beheading

According to the rectory, some of the messages received contain a video of a beheading, like those received last week from around fifty establishments in Ile-de-France. No one forgets the beheading of Professor Samuel Paty on the Ile de France, in front of the door of his school, in 2020.

On Saturday, ten secondary and high schools of the Amiens Academy (in the Aisne, the Oise and the Somme), as well as fifteen institutes of the Lille Academy, received similar messages, according to the rectories involved.

This was ensured by a message sent to the parents of students at a school in Lille “122 factories will explode on Monday.” The author of the message also threatens to attack the CNews television channel, owned by billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

Schools evacuated

In addition to the Oise factories, this Monday morning some “fifteen” factories were evacuated to Alsace to carry out safety checks after a “malicious message” sent via My Digital Office.

In Strasbourg, the Kléber school was evacuated shortly after the doors opened at 8 in the morning. At the Bartholdi institute in Colmar, parents were informed by message this Monday morning of the closure of the institute.

In a press release, the Prefecture of Bas-Rhin mentions “multiple bomb threats.” It indicates that “the affected secondary and high schools will resume normal operations once the premises are made safe.”

ISIS K and France

ISIS K operates in the Sahel, the enormous desert that crosses Algeria, Tunisia, Mali and from where the French troops were expelled after the coup by the Malian military, with the support of Wagner, the Russian paramilitaries. then fell into disgrace.

Coming from the violent Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, ISIS K is made up of jihadists from the former Soviet republics of Ingushetia, Tajikistan, Dagestan, Chechnya and Russia, who operate in the Sahel and have been protagonists in Syria and arrived from Central Asia .

In Syria, the Westerners have made a secret pact with Vladimir Putin, who has a military sea and air base on the Mediterranean in Latakia, to help eliminate them in Palmyra, Aleppo and Idlib. For them the attack on Moscow is a retaliation. There were hundreds of Russian jihadists alongside ISIS in the Middle East.

It should not be forgotten that the 10% of the Russian population is Muslim and many are sent to the front, to die in Ukraine.

50 attacks dismantled in France

President Macron admitted that more than 47 attacks have been dismantled in France since 2017.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal went to the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris on Monday afternoon to greet police, including soldiers from the Sentinelle force, after the Vigipirate security plan was raised to the highest level, his office announced .

Operation Sentinel It was launched in January 2015 after the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine. According to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, up to 10,000 soldiers (of which 3,000 in reserve) can be deployed on the national territory. The volume of soldiers deployed is not fixed and evolves based on needs.

The General Directorate of Internal Security will bring together “all secret service agents” on Thursday morning to “draw all the consequences of the attack in Moscow”, Gérald Darmanin announced on Monday.

The schools attacked in the academies of Amiens, Lille and Reims were due to reopen on Monday morning under the surveillance of the police, the gendarmerie and the national mobile educational security teams. In some cases it was necessary create “listening cells” for students. Access to ENT at these three academies has also been suspended until further notice.

The perpetrators of the threats are being sought

“They think they are staying anonymous, but we are monitoring them. They think they are safe, but we sanction them. Several dozen perpetrators of these threats, which occurred in recent months, have already been brought to justice,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said last week, following threatening messages received from Ile-de-France institutions.

The government has registered 800 false bomb alerts in mid-November after the jihadist attack that took the life of Professor Dominique Bernard, in Arras (Pas de Calais), on 13 October.