LONDON: Panic buttons will be installed in French schools in a bid to alert police of terrorist attacks, The Times reported.
The move follows the murder of a teacher by an Islamist last month, and as tensions surge in the country over the Gaza conflict.
Several towns and cities across France already use panic buttons in schools, but Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has said the system should be introduced nationwide.
Teacher Dominique Bernard, 57, was stabbed to death last month outside his secondary school in Arras, northeastern France.
A former student at the school, 20-year-old Mohammed Mogouchkov, has been charged with Bernard’s murder.
Mogouchkov had recorded a video pledging allegiance to Daesh shortly before carrying out the attack.
Education unions have been divided in their response to the plan to introduce panic buttons nationwide.
Sophie Venetitay, general secretary of a secondary school teachers’ union, said schools should not be turned into “bunkers,” but Maxime Rieppert, deputy chairman of another union, said: “All measures are welcome.”
In a high-profile case in 2020, teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded outside his Paris school by a Chechen terrorist who was later shot dead by police.
Following the outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza, France has been hit by a series of fake bomb threats, including to schools.
The southern French city of Nice already has panic buttons in education sites. The 2016 Bastille Day attack in Nice killed 87 people.
Buttons in the city’s primary and secondary schools set off an alarm in the local urban surveillance center if activated.
Personnel at the center can then listen in on audio from schools, and if necessary call police to the site.
