French presidential couple attend funeral service of teacher slain in school attack

ARRAS, France (AP) — Loved ones and colleagues mourned and celebrated the life of a French-language teacher who was stabbed to death in a school attack blamed on a suspected Islamic extremist. They remembered Dominique Bernard at his funeral service Thursday as a sensitive, crowd-shy man who loved literature, art and nature and was a devoted, playful mentor to his pupils.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were among mourners at the cathedral in Arras, the northern French town where Bernard taught at the Gambetta-Carnot school. White flowers adorned the coffin. A crowd, with some people clutching white flowers, also watched the service on a giant screen in an Arras square. Bernard was 57.

His wife, Isabelle, described her husband as a great lover of literature, music, art, cinema and “the raking evening light,” who wasn’t fond of computers, crowds and social networks, didn’t have a cellphone and “didn’t like the noise and furor of the world.”

“He deeply loved his daughters, his mother and his sister. We loved one another,” she said.

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A colleague recalled that Bernard would tease pupils when he caught them puffing on cigarettes outside the school, jokingly saying: “You smoking a little coffin nail?”

His killing last Friday shocked France and prompted heightened security at schools and other sites. Three other people were injured in the attack.

The alleged attacker was arrested. Identified by prosecutors as Mohammed M., he remains in detention and is under formal investigation for terror-related murder, attempted murder and other charges. France’s anti-terror prosecutor said the suspect declared allegiance to the Islamic State group in an audio message recorded before the attack.

A younger brother, also detained, is under formal investigation for complicity in terror-related murder and other charges. The anti-terror prosecutor said the 16-year-old is suspected of having provided “a certain amount of support” for the attack, of being aware of his older brother’s radicalization and of advising him how to handle knives.

A cousin is also under formal investigation on a charge of failing to prevent a crime.

The investigations allow magistrates more time to gather evidence before an eventual trial.

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Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France.