CONFLANS-SAINTE-HONORINE, (France): A history teacher beheaded in a Paris suburb on Friday had been the target of online threats for showing pupils blasphemous cartoons in class, France's anti-terror prosecutor said on Saturday.

The father of a schoolgirl had sought 47-year-old teacher Samuel Paty's dismissal and launched an online call for "mobilisation" against him after the lesson on freedom of expression, Jean-Francois Ricard said in a televised news conference.

Paty was decapitated outside his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of the capital, and the killer was fatally wounded by police.

The Russian embassy in Paris said the suspect was Abdullakh Anzorov, whose family had arrived in France when he was six and requested asylum. The 18-year-old had received a residence permit this year, according to the embassy, and had no links with Russia.

The schoolgirl's father and a known Islamist militant are among 10 people arrested.—AFP