Thousands of people have gathered in several states in France in order to show solidarity and defiance with the teacher, Samuel Paty, who was murdered in a terrorist attack on Friday, October 18, due to showing his students caricatures of Prophet Mohammad.
The suspected killer, 18-year-old Chechen refugee, was armed with a knife and a plastic pellet gun, was shot dead by French officers in a nearby town, according to the police.
Leading politicians, civil rights associations as well as teachers’ unions have joined hands on the Place de la République in Paris carrying placards proclaiming “Je suis Samuel”, an echo of the “Je suis Charlie” slogan following the 2015 attack where an Islamist gunman mudered 12 at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Moreover, French President Macron has labeled the incident as an "assassination" and an "Islamist terrorist attack".
