France: Teacher decapitated, suspect shot dead by police

A history teacher who opened a discussion with students on caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad was decapitated in a French street on Friday and police have shot the suspected killer dead, a police official said.

A history teacher who opened a discussion with students on caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad was decapitated in a French street on Friday and police have shot the suspected killer dead, a police official said. The French anti-terrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation into the slaying for murder with a suspected terrorist motive, the prosecutor's office said. The gruesome incident occurred in the town of Eragny, in the Val d'Oise region northwest of Paris.

A police official said the suspect, armed with a knife and an airsoft gun was shot to death by police about 600 meters (yards) from where the male teacher was killed. The teacher had been threatened after opening a discussion the debate, the police official told The Associated Press. The official could not be named, not being authorised to discuss ongoing investigations.

It was the second terrorism-related incident since the opening of an ongoing trial on the newsroom massacre in Jan 2015 at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.