⁍ A middle school history teacher in France was knifed to death near the school where earlier this month he had shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, considered blasphemous by Muslims, French officials said on Friday.

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⁍ The attacker was shot dead by a police patrol a few streets away from the scene of the attack late on Friday afternoon, in a residential suburb north-west of Paris.

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⁍ The victim of Friday’s attack sustained multiple knife wounds to the neck, according to a police representative.

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– “One of our fellow citizens was assassinated today because he was teaching, he was teaching pupils about freedom of expression,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters at the scene of the attack Friday, per Reuters. “They won’t win. We will act. Firmly, And quickly. You can count on my determination.” The history teacher was stabbed to death near the school where earlier this month he had shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, considered blasphemous by Muslims, French officials say. The attacker was shot dead by a police patrol a few streets away from the scene of the attack late Friday afternoon, in a residential suburb north-west of Paris. The victim sustained multiple knife wounds to the neck, according to a police rep. One law enforcement source says the attacker was 18 years old and born in Moscow. French broadcaster BFMTV reported that the suspected attacker was 18 years old and born in Moscow. The incident carried echoes of the attack five years ago on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, unleashing divisions that are still casting a pall over French society. Friday’s killing, by targeting a teacher, was interpreted by many public figures as an attack on the essence of French statehood, with the values it espouses of secularism, freedom of worship, and freedom of expression. “This evening, it’s the Republic that’s under attack,” Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer tweeted.