French police raid Islamist groups after beheading

French police yesterday raided the homes of dozens of suspected Islamist militants three days after the beheading of a teacher who had shown his pupils cartoons deemed inappropriate to Muslims, the interior minister said. The raids came a day after tens of thousands of people took part in rallies countrywide to honour slain teacher Samuel Paty and to defend freedom of expression. Gerald Darmanin said the swoop on Islamist networks was designed to send a message that "enemies of the Republic" would not enjoy "a minute's respite". Paty, 47, was murdered on his way home from the school where he taught in a suburb northwest of Paris on Friday afternoon. A photo of the teacher and a message confessing to his murder was found on the mobile phone of his killer, an 18-year-old Chechen man Abdullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by police.