Mosques in Two French Cities under Police Protection after Threats

TEHRAN (IQNA) – French Interior Minister Gerarld Darmanin said on Wednesday he had asked local authorities to put mosques in the cities of Bordeaux and Beziers in southwestern France under police protection.

The move comes following threats or acts of violence against mosques.

“Such actions are unacceptable on the soil of the Republic” the minister said in a tweet, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, seven people, including two minors, were handed over to a judge overnight as part of an ongoing investigation into Friday’s murder of French teacher Samuel Paty, an official from the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office said.

The grisly killing, in which an 18-year-old of Chechen origin beheaded Paty in broad daylight outside his school, has left the country reeling.

President Emmanuel Macron will posthumously award Paty the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civil distinction, in a ceremony on Wednesday.