France teacher attack: Rallies held to support beheaded Samuel Paty

 Rallies held to support beheaded Samuel Paty

Rallies are being held across France in support of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson

People in the Place de la République in Paris carried the slogan "Je suis enseignant" (I am a teacher), with PM Jean Castex saying: "We are France!"

A man named as Abdoulakh A was shot dead by police on Friday after killing Mr Paty close to his school near Paris.

An 11th person has been arrested as part of the investigation.

No details have been given about the arrest. Four close relatives of the suspect were detained shortly after the killing. Six more people were held on Saturday, including the father of a pupil at the school and a preacher described by French media as a radical Islamist.

President Emmanuel Macron said the attack bore all the hallmarks of an "Islamist terrorist attack" and the teacher had been murdered because he "taught freedom of expression".

It was in the square that 1.5 million people protested following the deadly attack in 2015 on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, after it had published the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

One protester on Sunday carried a sign reading "zero tolerance to all enemies of the Republic", another "I am a professor. I'm thinking of you, Samuel."

 Samuel Paty

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said France would succeed in defeating the enemies of democracy if it were united and that all teachers in France needed support.

In Lille, people carried banners and placards with the simple words "I am Samuel".

Thousands of people also gathered in Place Bellecour in Lyon to pay their respects, with another large turnout in Nantes.

Demonstrations are also being held in Toulouse, Strasbourg, Marseille, Bordeaux and elsewhere.