A terror investigation has been launched after a teacher was stabbed to death during a knife attack at a school in France.

Two people are also reported to have been injured in the incident at the Gambetta secondary school in Arras, in northern France.

“The perpetrator is in police custody,” French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said.

French media outlet, BFMTV, quoting an unnamed police source, reported the suspect as being a former pupil of the school, aged in his 20s.

Europe 1 reported the man as being of “Chechen origin” and previously known to French security services.

French anti-terror prosecutors have taken over the investigation.

The man’s brother has also been arrested, according to French media.

Local authorities confirmed on Friday that a teacher had died in the incident and that a suspect had been arrested.

The teacher is reported to be a French teacher at the school, according to local media – quoting an unnamed union source.

According to the source, the school’s deputy headteacher and a PE teacher were also injured in the attack.

Students have reportedly been locked down in the school.

Local media quoted one pupil as saying: “We came out of class to go to the canteen, and we saw the guy with two knives attacking the teacher, who had blood on him.

“He tried to calm him down and protect us. He told us to get out, but we didn’t understand. We ran, and others went back upstairs.”

France’s president Emmanuel Macron is travelling to the town following the incident.

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