School in northern France evacuated over bomb alert

11 Jan, 2016 09:41 / Updated 8 years ago

A high school was evacuated in northern France over a suspected bomb threat. Security in the country remains high after two major terrorist attacks in 2015.

The school called Mireille Grenet is in Compiègne, a commune in the north of France.

The evacuation started on Monday morning. Police cordoned off the area.

Some 2,000 students have been evacuated by around 9:30am local time.

The threat published online by a user named FrenchJihad93-7 claims the person made and then hid several radio controlled explosive devices.

The author said he was “not popular” and that he planned “to take my life and the lives of thousands of students.”

France suffered two devastating terrorist attacks last year. In January, two gunmen killed 12 people and injured 11 others in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly. In November, a series of gun and bomb attacks in Paris claimed 130 lives - the deadliest instance of violence in the country since World War II.

The terrorist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility for both incidents, as well as a number of smaller attacks and attempted attacks.