Donald Trump has issued a rare rebuke to Moscow for an air attack that killed 12 people in Kyiv, telling the Russian president in a social media post: “Vladimir, STOP!”

The US president’s remarks come as he makes a renewed push to end the Ukraine war, reportedly on terms favourable to Russia that include recognition of Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, something the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said he cannot accept.

Trump told reporters in Washington: “I have my own deadline,” amid speculation he wants to have a ceasefire agreed before his 100th day in office on 30 April. He repeatedly claimed during his election campaign that he would end the war within 24 hours of taking office.

The US president insisted that he was applying pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war, claiming that an agreement by Moscow not to take over the entire country would be a “pretty big concession”.

“We’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that,” he said.

The attack on Kyiv was the biggest and most deadly this year. Two children were among the dead and at least 90 people were injured. Russia also carried out strikes against Kharkiv and other cities.

Waves of drones as well as ballistic and guided missiles struck the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday. There were explosions for much of the night, beginning at about 1am local time, and the rattle of anti-aircraft fire as Ukrainian defences tried to shoot the missiles down.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said rescuers searching for survivors had found one man alive and recovered three bodies. Zelenskyy said two of the victims were a brother and a sister, 21-year-old Nikita and 19-year-old Sofia. “To our great regret, there is destruction and loss in our capital,” he said.

The injured included six children and a pregnant woman, with more than 40 people taken to hospital. A house, other buildings and cars were set on fire and extensive damage was caused by falling debris in several districts.

“Russia has launched a massive combined strike on Kyiv,” Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Telegram.

According to Reuters, Russia fired a North Korean KN-23 missile at an apartment block in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi district. Video showed the missile plunging into the building, followed by a huge orange explosion and a boom.

Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said a big rescue operation was under way at the scene of the strike, involving dogs and engineering teams. “Mobile phones can be heard ringing under the ruins. The search will continue until everybody is got out. We have information about two children who cannot be found at the scene of the incident,” he said.

Earlier on Wednesday evening, drones could be seen buzzing in the sky above the north-east Kharkiv region and flying over a forest. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, was hit by seven missiles and 12 kamikaze drones in strikes throughout the night as black smoke plumed overhead.

According to Kharkiv’s mayor, several private houses, a factory and a high-rise apartment block were hit. “One of the most recent strikes hit a densely populated residential area. Two people were injured there,” Ihor Terekhov said, urging people to be careful.

On Thursday Trump posted on Truth Social: “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5,000 soldiers a week are dying. Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!”

The day before, he had lashed out at Zelenskyy for failing to support a US “peace plan” in which Crimea and other Ukrainian territories would be handed to Russia.

Trump accused Ukraine’s president of prolonging the “killing field” and making “very harmful” statements. Zelenskyy has ruled out recognising Crimea as Russian and says a complete ceasefire is needed before any settlement can be discussed.

Zelenskyy said he was cutting short a trip to South Africa because of the attack. “It has been 44 days since Ukraine agreed to a full ceasefire and a halt to strikes … And it has been 44 days of Russia continuing to kill our people,” Zelensky said in a post on X. “The strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally.”

According to Bloomberg, Washington will push back on Russia’s demand that Ukraine is “demilitarised” as a part of a peace deal. The news agency said the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, would insist during his next meeting with Putin that Kyiv has its own army and defence industry.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga, said Russia’s “maximalist demands for Ukraine to withdraw from its regions, combined with these brutal strikes, show that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace”.

He added: “Moscow, not Kyiv, is where pressure should be applied. Putin demonstrates through his actions, not words, that he does not respect any peace efforts and only wants to continue the war. Weakness and concessions will not stop his terror and aggression. Only strength and pressure will.”

Posting on social media as Russian bombs fell around them, Ukrainians criticised Trump’s one-sided approach and his apparent indifference to Ukrainian civilian casualties. The massive attack suggested the Kremlin was not remotely interested in peace, they suggested.

Olga Rudenko, the editor of the Kyiv Independent newspaper, wrote on social media: “Can’t begin to explain how surreal it is to be sitting on the floor in the safest place of my apartment hearing an extremely loud Russian missile+drone attack – after having spent entire day discussing and editing coverage of the US effectively demanding Ukraine’s surrender.”

Euan MacDonald, a freelance journalist, said: “Great big bang in Kyiv, and another – incoming missiles. Shaheds also in city, just heard anti-aircraft guns. And two more big bangs just as I write … Not been this noisy for a while.”

There were further attacks in the cities of Pavlohrad and Zhytomyr, as well as in the Zaporizhzhia region.

In Kyiv, some residents spent a sleepless night in the subway, which doubles as a missile shelter. According to the photographer Kostyantyn Liberov, Shahed drones struck the same district twice as rescuers and civilians were trying to free a young woman who was trapped in a collapsed building.

“Honey, we’ll get you out no matter what. We’re right here,” one of the rescuers reassured her as a Shahed drone buzzed overhead, Liberov reported.

Anton Shtuka, a videographer who filmed the difficult rescue operation, said: “Sometimes it looks like these strikes hit our homes because Putin feels US support and begins to pressure Ukraine even more.” He added, ironically: “Thank you, partners.”

Kyiv was last hit by missiles in early April, when at least three people were hurt. It has been the target of sporadic attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, said: “Putin shows only a desire to kill. The attacks on civilians must stop.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine could not accept US recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea as he visited South Africa, while both he and Donald Trump criticised a deadly missile and drone attack on Kyiv.

Though he did not mention Crimea – the contested Black Sea peninsula occupied by Russia since spring 2014 – by name, Ukraine’s president diplomatically returned to the topic a day after Trump accused him of intransigence on the issue.

Zelenskyy was speaking alongside his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, on a trip that he then cut short after the assault on Kyiv that left at least 12 dead and more than 90 injured. He complained that he did not “see strong pressure on Russia now” to bring the war to an end.

When asked whether he thought the US was becoming impatient with the lack of progress towards a peace agreement, Zelenskyy said the cost of the war continuing was ultimately borne by Ukrainian civilians.

“I’m not sure whose patience is wearing thin, but I think that ultimately patience will wear thin among the Ukrainians, because it’s us that has to suffer those Russian strikes,” Zelenskyy said.

Shortly after, Trump posted a rare public criticism of Moscow for its attack on civilians, in remarks aimed directly at the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. He said: “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Referring indirectly to Crimea, Zelenskyy said that while Ukraine wanted to cooperate with US and European allies, there were limits. “We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our legislation and the constitution we cannot do,” he said during a press conference in Pretoria.

Ukraine considers Crimea an integral part of the country in its constitution. The only way Kyiv could legally recognise a Russian takeover would be to put the issue to the public in a referendum, a point the country’s leaders have been making in public and private as the issue has come to the fore.

However, leaks from the beginning of the week suggested the US appears willing to recognise Russia’s unilateral annexation of Crimea as part of a peace plan largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow that would end the fighting. No western country has so far recognised the 2014 seizure of Crimea.

On Wednesday night, Trump publicly accused the Ukrainian leader of jeopardising an imminent peace deal by refusing to budge, arguing that “Crimea was lost years ago”. “Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory,” Trump wrote, implying that the US was willing to do so.

On Thursday, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Trump’s position “completely corresponds with our understanding and with what we have been saying for a long time” and Moscow was continuing to engage with the US.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a separate briefing that Zelenskyy lacked the capacity to negotiate a deal to end the war – and accused him of trying to “torpedo the emerging peace process at any cost”.

Zelenskyy meanwhile tweeted out a “Crimea declaration” released in 2018 under the previous Trump administration by the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. In it the US said “no country can change the borders of another by force” – and accused Russia of trying to undermine “a bedrock international principle”.

Ukrainian officials argue that Crimea’s legal status as part of Ukraine has been upheld by UN general assembly resolutions, and accuse Russia of engaging in human rights abuses during its 11-year occupation. Last year the European court of human rights held that Russia was guilty of violations.

Negotiators also argue that allowing an attacker to legally take over territory creates a dangerous precedent for future conflicts, and could embolden authoritarian regimes such as China. Beijing has consistently threatened Taiwan and demanded its reunification with China.

However, that argument appears to have failed to cut through so far with the White House, which under Trump has asserted its own territorial claims to Greenland, the Panama canal and Canada.

Few in Ukraine believe that Russia, under Putin, would be prepared to halt its demands for territorial recognition at Crimea. Under the emerging peace proposals, Russia would also keep the vast majority of the Ukrainian territory it occupies in the east and the south, though this would not be recognised by the US or others.

A concern among Ukrainian officials is that an imposed peace agreement not considered to be fair or just in the country could escalate tensions and so threaten regional stability. Ignoring legitimate Ukrainian interests may help perpetuate the conflict at a lower level, not dissimilar to the period between 2015 and 2022.

Russia’s focus on consolidating its position in Crimea reflects its strategic significance. Orysia Lutsevych, a Ukraine expert with the Chatham House thinktank, said greater control would allow Russia to rebuild its position in the northern Black Sea and potentially “threaten Ukrainian grain shipping and ports again”.

Over the course of the war, Ukraine’s successful use of long-range sea drones – helping it destroy or damage an estimated 24 vessels – has forced Russia’s Black Sea fleet to relocate east from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk. Ukraine has been able to continue grain exports through a western maritime corridor.

A long ceasefire or peace would also allow Russia to redeploy in Sevastopol and use Crimea to project power further south towards the Mediterranean, Lutsevych said, a point given sharper focus in Moscow after the loss of the Tartus naval base in Syria after the fall of its one-time ally Bashar al-Assad.

“The obsession with Crimea has a military strategic reasoning, although its symbolic importance to Putin also means he wants it as part of his legacy. Ukraine also recognises that his desire for Crimea also makes it an achilles heel for his regime, if it can show he cannot control it.”

Boris Johnson has issued stern criticism of Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace proposals in one of his first apparent censures of the US president, saying under his terms the Ukrainians would “get nothing”.

The former British prime minister, a strong supporter of Ukraine who remains close to Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, has previously said there is “method in the madness” of Trump’s approach and that he believed the US president could bring peace.

But in a post on X, Johnson criticised the apparent terms of a deal that Trump is pushing Kyiv to accept.

Overnight, Trump accused Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement.

Russia then carried out one of the most devastating air attacks against the capital for months, with Kharkiv and other cities also targeted.

“Putin indiscriminately butchers more Ukrainian civilians, killing and injuring 100 in Kyiv including children,” Johnson posted. “And what is his reward under the latest peace proposals?

“1. The right to keep sovereign Ukrainian territory he has taken by violence and in breach of international law. 2. The right to control Ukraine’s destiny by forbidding Nato membership. 3. The lifting of sanctions against Russia. 4. An economic partnership with America. 5. The chance to rebuild his armed forces for the next attack in a few short years’ time.”

He added: “As for Ukraine – what do they get after three years of heroic resistance against a brutal and unprovoked invasion? What is their reward for the appalling sacrifices they have made – for the sake, as they have endlessly been told, of freedom and democracy around the world?

“Apart from the right to share their natural resources with the United States they get nothing. What is there in this deal that can realistically stop a third Russian invasion? Nothing. If we are to prevent more atrocities by Putin then we must have a long-term, credible and above all properly funded security guarantee for Ukraine – a guarantee issued by the UK, the US and all western allies.”

Keir Starmer condemned Moscow’s overnight strikes on Kyiv, saying it was “a real reminder that Russia is the aggressor here and that is being felt by the Ukrainians, as it has been felt for three long years now. That’s why it’s important to get Russia to an unconditional ceasefire.”

He added: “We’re making progress towards the ceasefire. It’s got to be a lasting ceasefire. But these attacks – these awful attacks – are a real, human reminder of who is the aggressor here and the cost to the Ukrainian people.”

Trump also criticised the strikes in a post on his Truth Social network. He said: “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Johnson has previously criticised some of Trump’s language about Zelenskyy, including during their White House fallout, saying it was “ghastly to hear some of the language that’s been coming from Washington about who started the war and Zelenskyy being a dictator”.

But in the aftermath of the row, Johnson defended Trump again in a column for the Mail, saying the war of words “was not meant to happen” and that the US president did have a viable plan for peace.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine could not accept US recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea as he visited South Africa, while both he and Donald Trump criticised a deadly missile and drone attack on Kyiv.

Though he did not mention Crimea – the contested Black Sea peninsula occupied by Russia since spring 2014 – by name, Ukraine’s president diplomatically returned to the topic a day after Trump accused him of intransigence on the issue.

Zelenskyy was speaking alongside his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, on a trip that he then cut short after the assault on Kyiv that left at least 12 dead and more than 90 injured. He complained that he did not “see strong pressure on Russia now” to bring the war to an end.

When asked whether he thought the US was becoming impatient with the lack of progress towards a peace agreement, Zelenskyy said the cost of the war continuing was ultimately borne by Ukrainian civilians.

“I’m not sure whose patience is wearing thin, but I think that ultimately patience will wear thin among the Ukrainians, because it’s us that has to suffer those Russian strikes,” Zelenskyy said.

Shortly after, Trump posted a rare public criticism of Moscow for its attack on civilians, in remarks aimed directly at the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. He said: “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Referring indirectly to Crimea, Zelenskyy said that while Ukraine wanted to cooperate with US and European allies, there were limits. “We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our legislation and the constitution we cannot do,” he said during a press conference in Pretoria.

Ukraine considers Crimea an integral part of the country in its constitution. The only way Kyiv could legally recognise a Russian takeover would be to put the issue to the public in a referendum, a point the country’s leaders have been making in public and private as the issue has come to the fore.

However, leaks from the beginning of the week suggested the US appears willing to recognise Russia’s unilateral annexation of Crimea as part of a peace plan largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow that would end the fighting. No western country has so far recognised the 2014 seizure of Crimea.

On Wednesday night, Trump publicly accused the Ukrainian leader of jeopardising an imminent peace deal by refusing to budge, arguing that “Crimea was lost years ago”. “Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory,” Trump wrote, implying that the US was willing to do so.

On Thursday, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Trump’s position “completely corresponds with our understanding and with what we have been saying for a long time” and Moscow was continuing to engage with the US.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a separate briefing that Zelenskyy lacked the capacity to negotiate a deal to end the war – and accused him of trying to “torpedo the emerging peace process at any cost”.

Zelenskyy meanwhile tweeted out a “Crimea declaration” released in 2018 under the previous Trump administration by the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. In it the US said “no country can change the borders of another by force” – and accused Russia of trying to undermine “a bedrock international principle”.

Ukrainian officials argue that Crimea’s legal status as part of Ukraine has been upheld by UN general assembly resolutions, and accuse Russia of engaging in human rights abuses during its 11-year occupation. Last year the European court of human rights held that Russia was guilty of violations.

Negotiators also argue that allowing an attacker to legally take over territory creates a dangerous precedent for future conflicts, and could embolden authoritarian regimes such as China. Beijing has consistently threatened Taiwan and demanded its reunification with China.

However, that argument appears to have failed to cut through so far with the White House, which under Trump has asserted its own territorial claims to Greenland, the Panama canal and Canada.

Few in Ukraine believe that Russia, under Putin, would be prepared to halt its demands for territorial recognition at Crimea. Under the emerging peace proposals, Russia would also keep the vast majority of the Ukrainian territory it occupies in the east and the south, though this would not be recognised by the US or others.

A concern among Ukrainian officials is that an imposed peace agreement not considered to be fair or just in the country could escalate tensions and so threaten regional stability. Ignoring legitimate Ukrainian interests may help perpetuate the conflict at a lower level, not dissimilar to the period between 2015 and 2022.

Russia’s focus on consolidating its position in Crimea reflects its strategic significance. Orysia Lutsevych, a Ukraine expert with the Chatham House thinktank, said greater control would allow Russia to rebuild its position in the northern Black Sea and potentially “threaten Ukrainian grain shipping and ports again”.

Over the course of the war, Ukraine’s successful use of long-range sea drones – helping it destroy or damage an estimated 24 vessels – has forced Russia’s Black Sea fleet to relocate east from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk. Ukraine has been able to continue grain exports through a western maritime corridor.

A long ceasefire or peace would also allow Russia to redeploy in Sevastopol and use Crimea to project power further south towards the Mediterranean, Lutsevych said, a point given sharper focus in Moscow after the loss of the Tartus naval base in Syria after the fall of its one-time ally Bashar al-Assad.

“The obsession with Crimea has a military strategic reasoning, although its symbolic importance to Putin also means he wants it as part of his legacy. Ukraine also recognises that his desire for Crimea also makes it an achilles heel for his regime, if it can show he cannot control it.”

Boris Johnson has issued stern criticism of Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace proposals in one of his first apparent censures of the US president, saying under his terms the Ukrainians would “get nothing”.

The former British prime minister, a strong supporter of Ukraine who remains close to Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, has previously said there is “method in the madness” of Trump’s approach and that he believed the US president could bring peace.

But in a post on X, Johnson criticised the apparent terms of a deal that Trump is pushing Kyiv to accept.

Overnight, Trump accused Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement.

Russia then carried out one of the most devastating air attacks against the capital for months, with Kharkiv and other cities also targeted.

“Putin indiscriminately butchers more Ukrainian civilians, killing and injuring 100 in Kyiv including children,” Johnson posted. “And what is his reward under the latest peace proposals?

“1. The right to keep sovereign Ukrainian territory he has taken by violence and in breach of international law. 2. The right to control Ukraine’s destiny by forbidding Nato membership. 3. The lifting of sanctions against Russia. 4. An economic partnership with America. 5. The chance to rebuild his armed forces for the next attack in a few short years’ time.”

He added: “As for Ukraine – what do they get after three years of heroic resistance against a brutal and unprovoked invasion? What is their reward for the appalling sacrifices they have made – for the sake, as they have endlessly been told, of freedom and democracy around the world?

“Apart from the right to share their natural resources with the United States they get nothing. What is there in this deal that can realistically stop a third Russian invasion? Nothing. If we are to prevent more atrocities by Putin then we must have a long-term, credible and above all properly funded security guarantee for Ukraine – a guarantee issued by the UK, the US and all western allies.”

Keir Starmer condemned Moscow’s overnight strikes on Kyiv, saying it was “a real reminder that Russia is the aggressor here and that is being felt by the Ukrainians, as it has been felt for three long years now. That’s why it’s important to get Russia to an unconditional ceasefire.”

He added: “We’re making progress towards the ceasefire. It’s got to be a lasting ceasefire. But these attacks – these awful attacks – are a real, human reminder of who is the aggressor here and the cost to the Ukrainian people.”

Trump also criticised the strikes in a post on his Truth Social network. He said: “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

Johnson has previously criticised some of Trump’s language about Zelenskyy, including during their White House fallout, saying it was “ghastly to hear some of the language that’s been coming from Washington about who started the war and Zelenskyy being a dictator”.

But in the aftermath of the row, Johnson defended Trump again in a column for the Mail, saying the war of words “was not meant to happen” and that the US president did have a viable plan for peace.

New developments have come to light in the killing of 15 Palestinian medics and rescue workers by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip last month, with evidence reportedly contradicting the Israel Defense Forces’ claim that soldiers did not fire indiscriminately at the medical workers.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Wednesday that its analysis of the IDF’s own materials collected as part of an internal investigation into the incident contradicted the army’s claim that soldiers did not shoot indiscriminately at Palestinian ambulances and a fire engine in the early hours of 23 March.

Instead, Haaretz said, soldiers fired continuously at the vehicles for three and a half minutes from close range despite the aid workers’ attempts to identify themselves.

The family of Assad al-Nsasrah, one of two survivors of the attack, filed a petition on Wednesday with Israel’s high court seeking details of his detention in Israel. Israeli authorities confirmed last week that Nsasrah was in custody, but under emergency war legislation the whereabouts of detainees from Gaza can be kept secret and they can be barred from meeting a lawyer for 45 days. Nsasrah is not allowed legal counsel until 7 May.

In Israeli political news on Thursday, the supreme court granted Benjamin Netanyahu an extension until Sunday to file an official rebuttal to an affidavit from his fired Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar.

The Israeli prime minister was expected to accuse the head of the general security service of lying, in an affidavit that was supposed to be submitted by the end of Thursday in response to claims made by the security chief in his own 31-page affidavit earlier this week.

Israel’s supreme court halted Bar’s controversial firing after a cabinet vote last month, widespread protests and a petition from the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, on the grounds it may be unlawful. The battle between the two men is pushing the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

The Shin Bet has been investigating Netanyahu’s close aides for alleged breaches of national security, including leaking classified documents to foreign media, and allegedly taking money from Qatar, which is known to have given significant financial aid to Hamas.

In his affidavit, Bar accused Netanyahu of moving to sack him after his refusal to fulfil requests including spying on anti-government protesters and helping the premier postpone his testimony in his criminal trial. Bar also claimed it had been made clear to him that he was expected to be “personally loyal” to the prime minister.

Netanyahu has said he lost trust in Bar’s capacity to lead the Shin Bet. He escalated his attack on Bar on Wednesday night, before his expected filing, by sharing a recording of a phone conversation between a Shin Bet agent and a police officer allegedly proving that the agency “persecutes rightwing activists”.

The relationship between the two men, already strained, deteriorated further after the release of a Shin Bet investigation pointing to policy issues in the run-up to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.

Netanyahu has never accepted any responsibility for Israel’s worst national security disaster, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, led to 251 being abducted and held hostage in the Gaza Strip, and ignited the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

The head of Israel’s powerful Histadrut union, Arnon Bar-David, threatened on Thursday to call a nationwide strike if the government disobeyed a potential high court order to reinstate Bar, describing such a move as a “red line”.

Two previous Histadrut strikes have put Netanyahu’s far-right coalition under significant pressure. One in March 2023 was triggered by the prime minster’s decision to fire the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, over his opposition to a proposed judicial overhaul. Strike action in September 2024 took place in favour of a hostage deal and ceasefire in the war in Gaza after Hamas murdered six captives.

In Gaza on Wednesday, Israeli airstrikes across the strip killed at least 28 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, whose data the UN assesses to be accurate.

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan have moved closer to military confrontation as Islamabad closed its airspace to Indian aircraft and warned that any effort by Delhi to interfere with the supply of water under a decades-old treaty would be viewed as an act of war.

In a series of escalating tit-for-tat moves since a massacre of Indian tourists in the disputed region of Kashmir earlier this week by Islamic militants, India ordered its citizens to return from Pakistan, while Pakistan expelled a number of Indian diplomats.

The fast-rising tensions between the two countries follow the killing of 25 Indian tourists and a Nepalese national on Tuesday, the worst assault targeting civilians in the restive region for years. It prompted India to renew its blaming of Pakistan for sustaining “cross-border terrorism”, a claim Pakistan denies.

“Pakistan declares the Indian defence, naval and air advisers in Islamabad persona non grata. They are directed to leave Pakistan immediately,” a statement from the office of the prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said after he had convened a rare national security committee meeting. It also said visas issued to Indian nationals would be cancelled.

“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” the statement added, ordering the closure of borders, the cancellation of trade and the closure of airspace to Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines.

“India has taken irresponsible steps and levelled allegations,” Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, told the Dunya News TV channel.

Dar said “any kinetic step [military action] by India would see a tit-to-tat kinetic response” from Pakistan, rekindling memories of February 2019 when a car suicide bombing in Kashmir brought the two countries to the verge of war.

The toughest language, however, was aimed at India’s decision to suspend the decades-old Indus waters treaty – the world’s most durable water-sharing agreement – which is vital for Pakistani agriculture.

“Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus waters treaty … will be considered as an act of war and responded [to] with full force across the complete spectrum of national power,” Islamabad said on Thursday.

India suspended the treaty on Wednesday, when it also accused Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” and downgraded ties with its neighbour with a series of diplomatic measures. Pakistan has denied any role in the attack.

In response, Pakistan suspended the Shimla accord, the 1972 treaty that for decades formed the foundation of peace with India that was signed by the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and Pakistan’s Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after the 1971 war that resulted in Bangladesh’s creation.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, vowed to pursue those responsible for Tuesday’s attack “to the ends of the Earth”.

Twenty-six men were killed in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam, in the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory since 2000.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” Modi said in his first speech since the attack.

Pakistan’s top diplomat in Delhi, Saad Ahmad Warraich, the charge d’affaires at the Pakistan embassy, was summoned by India’s ministry of external affairs on Wednesday evening, according to a diplomatic source and local media reports.

India had already closed a key land border with Pakistan and barred Pakistani citizens from entering under a visa exemption scheme.

Police in Kashmir published notices on Thursday naming three suspected militants alleged to have been involved in the attack, and announced rewards for information leading to their arrest. Two of the three are Pakistani nationals, according to the notices.

Modi has called for a meeting with opposition parties on Thursday to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the Himalayan territory in full but governing separate portions of it.

The Indus waters treaty, mediated by the World Bank, splits the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbours and regulates the sharing of water. It had until now withstood wars between the neighbours.

India would hold the treaty in abeyance, the country’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, said.

Diplomatic ties between the two countries had been loose even before the latest measures were announced, after Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and said it would not post its own high commissioner to Delhi when India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir in 2019.

• Reuters, AP and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Tensions between the arch-rivals India and Pakistan have escalated rapidly after the massacre of 25 Indian tourists and a Nepalese citizen in the disputed Himalayan Kashmir region on Tuesday, prompting warnings of a return to conflict.

A previously unknown Islamic militant group calling itself the Resistance Front has claimed responsibility for the attack, which India immediately linked to Pakistan, although it did not publicly produce any evidence. Pakistan has denied any involvement.

Among a string of punitive measures announced since Tuesday, India has downgraded diplomatic ties, suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty and revoked all visas issued to Pakistani nationals.

In retaliation, Pakistan has closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or Indian-operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country.

The US and China held talks on Thursday to help resolve the trade war between the world’s two largest economies, Donald Trump said.

“We may reveal it later, but they had meetings this morning, and we’ve been meeting with China,” the US president told reporters at the White House.

China had earlier hit back against Trump’s previous claim to be close to a trade deal with Beijing.

Trump had buoyed markets by suggesting on Wednesday that the US was “actively” negotiating with Beijing, and pointing to hopes of a deal that would “substantially” reduce tariffs, now set at 145%, on goods coming into the US from China.

The Chinese commerce ministry’s spokesperson He Yadong said there were “currently no economic and trade negotiations between China and the United States”.

“Any claims about progress in China-US economic and trade negotiations are baseless rumours without factual evidence,” he said, adding that if the US wanted “de-escalation” – as Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has argued – it should “completely cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China and find a way to resolve differences through equal dialogue”.

Earlier this month Beijing retaliated against Trump’s tariffs by imposing a 125% tariff in turn, a situation that Bessent described as unsustainable, saying it amounted in effect to a trade embargo.

The director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, used a press conference in Washington on Thursday to call for a truce in the escalating trade conflict, to limit the damage to the global economy.

She declined to criticise the US administration directly but said “major trade policy shifts” had “spiked uncertainty off the charts”.

“A trade policy settlement among the main players is essential and we are urging them to do it swiftly, because uncertainty is very costly,” she said.

“I cannot stress this strongly enough: without certainty, businesses do not invest, households prefer to save rather than to spend, and this further weakens prospects for already weakened growth.”

Trump and his team have repeatedly highlighted the number of countries that are keen to strike trade deals since his “liberation day” tariffs were imposed and then partly paused earlier this month. But no deal has yet been signed.

The IMF downgraded its forecasts this week for global economic growth and warned of further downside risks if the trade war escalated. “Simply put, the world economy is facing a new and major test,” Georgieva said.

She added that the situation was particularly challenging because many countries had little room for policy manoeuvre after already enduring a series of economic shocks in recent years.

Asked what the mood of the delegations from the fund’s member countries in Washington had been this week, Georgieva said: “The membership is anxious.”

“We were just about to step on the road to more stability after multiple shocks. We were projecting 3.3% growth, and actually we were worried that this was not strong enough – and here we are,” she said. The IMF is now forecasting global growth of 2.8% for this year.

Georgieva urged China to carry out economic reforms as a response to the shift in policy in Washington. She suggested Beijing should boost demand at home, to rebalance its economy away from its dependence on exports, and “pull back from too much intervention in the economy”.

With many multilateral institutions under attack from the Trump administration, Georgieva welcomed a speech by Bessent on Wednesday in which he said the Bretton Woods institutions – the IMF and the World Bank – had “enduring value”.

“I very much appreciate Secretary Bessent’s reiteration of the US commitment to the Fund and to its role,” she said.

However, Bessent also fiercely criticised the institutions for what he called “mission creep” and their “sprawling and unfocused agendas”, including issues such as gender and the climate crisis.

Georgieva, responding to a question about these claims, declined to say whether the IMF would continue to work on climate or gender.

But she replied: “I want to say that I actually agree with the secretary on one thing. It’s a very complicated world, a world of massive challenges of all kinds.” Stressing that the Fund was a “very fiscally disciplined institution”, she added: “Yes, we have to focus.”

Discussions on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings have been dominated by the knock-on effects of Trump’s trade policy, with ministers closely monitoring the stream of pronouncements from the White House.

Most countries are facing 10% tariffs on all exports to the US, and 25% for some key products such as cars. It remains unclear whether the much higher “reciprocal” rates announced by Trump in the White House Rose Garden will be reimposed when his 90-day “pause” is over.

Thousands of mourners lined up for hours on a second day to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis’s body, after St Peter’s Basilica stayed open all night to cope with the huge crowds who had come to pay their final respects.

The 16th-century basilica, where Francis’s simple wooden coffin is placed on the main altar, was scheduled to close at midnight on Wednesday but remained open until 5.30am to allow in those who still wished to enter. After just 90 minutes of cleaning, it was reopened at 7am.

The Vatican said more than 90,000 people had viewed the late pontiff’s body since the basilica opened to the faithful for a three-day period that ends on Friday.

The pope, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in Casa Santa Marta on Monday, aged 88, after a stroke and subsequent heart failure.

In interviews with Italian media, the head of the pontiff’s medical team said​ Francis had died quickly without suffering, and there was nothing doctors could have done to save his life.

Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital,​ said he received a phone call at about 5.30am on Monday to come quickly to the Vatican.​ “I entered his rooms and he [Francis] had his eyes open,” the doctor told ​Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, adding: “I tried to call his name, but he did not respond to me … He was in a coma.

“In that moment, I knew there was nothing more to do.” The pope had been recovering from double pneumonia, which had kept him in hospital for five weeks. However, his recovery appeared to be going well. The day before he died, the pontiff had appeared in St Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday.

Alfieri​ said he last saw Francis on Saturday afternoon, and the pope “was very well”.

In a separate interview with La Repubblica news outlet, Alfieri said Francis had shared one final regret with him – not being fit enough to perform a foot-washing ritual on the feet of prisoners last week. The pope used to conduct the symbolic act of service and humility to echo the story of Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet.

“He regretted he could not wash the feet of the prisoners,” said the doctor. “‘This time I couldn’t do it’ was the last thing he said to me.”

His body was moved to the basilica on Wednesday, when thousands of people started queueing for hours under the hot spring sun in St Peter’s Square to see Francis, who will lie in state until Friday evening.

In keeping with his requests for simple funeral rites, Francis was dressed in his vestments, holding a rosary, with his open casket lined with red cloth.

Unlike those of most of his predecessors, his coffin, which is being watched over by two Swiss Guards, has not been raised on a platform. That was one of the rituals Francis shunned when he simplified rules for papal funerals last year.

His funeral mass will take place at St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning. The Vatican has said 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs will attend.

Francis will then be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding tradition. On Thursday the Vatican released a photo of the alcove in the church where he will be laid to rest, with only a simple inscription: “Franciscus.”. The small niche, until the pope chose it for his burial spot, was used to store candlestick holders.

The heart of Rome is expected to be closed to traffic on Saturday to allow the funeral motorcade to make its way slowly from St Peter’s Square to Santa Maria Maggiore, giving Romans a chance to say a final farewell.

The Vatican said on Thursday a group of “poor and needy” had been invited to welcome the pope’s casket to the basilica. “The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God,” the Vatican said.

As the funeral rituals continue, speculation is rife about who will succeed Francis. On Wednesday evening, 103 cardinals met and approved nine days of mourning from the date of the funeral, with a conclave – the secret election process to choose a new pope – therefore not expected to begin before 5 May.

There is no clear frontrunner, although Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines, and Pietro Parolin, from Italy, who were among the procession, are early favourites.

Reuters contributed to this report

Thousands of mourners lined up for hours on a second day to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis’s body, after St Peter’s Basilica stayed open all night to cope with the huge crowds who had come to pay their final respects.

The 16th-century basilica, where Francis’s simple wooden coffin is placed on the main altar, was scheduled to close at midnight on Wednesday but remained open until 5.30am to allow in those who still wished to enter. After just 90 minutes of cleaning, it was reopened at 7am.

The Vatican said more than 90,000 people had viewed the late pontiff’s body since the basilica opened to the faithful for a three-day period that ends on Friday.

The pope, the head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, died at his home in Casa Santa Marta on Monday, aged 88, after a stroke and subsequent heart failure.

In interviews with Italian media, the head of the pontiff’s medical team said​ Francis had died quickly without suffering, and there was nothing doctors could have done to save his life.

Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital,​ said he received a phone call at about 5.30am on Monday to come quickly to the Vatican.​ “I entered his rooms and he [Francis] had his eyes open,” the doctor told ​Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, adding: “I tried to call his name, but he did not respond to me … He was in a coma.

“In that moment, I knew there was nothing more to do.” The pope had been recovering from double pneumonia, which had kept him in hospital for five weeks. However, his recovery appeared to be going well. The day before he died, the pontiff had appeared in St Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday.

Alfieri​ said he last saw Francis on Saturday afternoon, and the pope “was very well”.

In a separate interview with La Repubblica news outlet, Alfieri said Francis had shared one final regret with him – not being fit enough to perform a foot-washing ritual on the feet of prisoners last week. The pope used to conduct the symbolic act of service and humility to echo the story of Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet.

“He regretted he could not wash the feet of the prisoners,” said the doctor. “‘This time I couldn’t do it’ was the last thing he said to me.”

His body was moved to the basilica on Wednesday, when thousands of people started queueing for hours under the hot spring sun in St Peter’s Square to see Francis, who will lie in state until Friday evening.

In keeping with his requests for simple funeral rites, Francis was dressed in his vestments, holding a rosary, with his open casket lined with red cloth.

Unlike those of most of his predecessors, his coffin, which is being watched over by two Swiss Guards, has not been raised on a platform. That was one of the rituals Francis shunned when he simplified rules for papal funerals last year.

His funeral mass will take place at St Peter’s Square on Saturday morning. The Vatican has said 50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs will attend.

Francis will then be buried at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome’s Esquilino neighbourhood, breaking with longstanding tradition. On Thursday the Vatican released a photo of the alcove in the church where he will be laid to rest, with only a simple inscription: “Franciscus.”. The small niche, until the pope chose it for his burial spot, was used to store candlestick holders.

The heart of Rome is expected to be closed to traffic on Saturday to allow the funeral motorcade to make its way slowly from St Peter’s Square to Santa Maria Maggiore, giving Romans a chance to say a final farewell.

The Vatican said on Thursday a group of “poor and needy” had been invited to welcome the pope’s casket to the basilica. “The poor have a privileged place in the heart of God,” the Vatican said.

As the funeral rituals continue, speculation is rife about who will succeed Francis. On Wednesday evening, 103 cardinals met and approved nine days of mourning from the date of the funeral, with a conclave – the secret election process to choose a new pope – therefore not expected to begin before 5 May.

There is no clear frontrunner, although Luis Antonio Tagle, a reformer from the Philippines, and Pietro Parolin, from Italy, who were among the procession, are early favourites.

Reuters contributed to this report

California’s economy has surpassed Japan’s, making the Golden state the fourth largest economy in the world, governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday.

The state’s nominal GDP reached $4.1tn, according to data from the International Monetary Fund and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, edging out Japan’s $4.02tn nominal GDP. California now ranks behind the US at $29.18tn, China at $18.74tn and Germany at $4.65tn.

Along with the tech and entertainment industry capitals, the state, which has a population of nearly 40 million people, is the center for US manufacturing output and is the country’s largest agricultural producer.

“California isn’t just keeping pace with the world – we’re setting the pace. Our economy is thriving because we invest in people, prioritize sustainability, and believe in the power of innovation,” Newsom said in a statement.

The state has outperformed the world’s top economies with a growth rate in 2024 of 6% compared with the US’s 5.3%, China’s 2.6% and Germany’s 2.9%. This week’s new rankings come six years after California surpassed the United Kingdom and became the world’s fifth largest economy.

Newsom noted, however, that the Trump administration’s agenda endangers California’s economic interests.

“And, while we celebrate this success, we recognize that our progress is threatened by the reckless tariff policies of the current federal administration. California’s economy powers the nation, and it must be protected.”

California last week became the first state to sue the federal government over Donald Trump’s tariff policies, and has argued that the president’s actions are unlawful and that constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to impose tariffs.

“No state is poised to lose more than the state of California,” Newsom said during a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “It’s a serious and sober moment, and I’d be … lying to you if I said it can be quickly undone.”

California is a major contributor to economic growth nationally, with the money it sends to the federal government outpacing what it receives in federal funding by $83bn, according to a statement from Newsom’s office.

Despite an enormous shortage of affordable housing that has fueled a homelessness crisis in the state, the population has grown in recent years. Meanwhile, last year the state reported its tourism spending had hit an all-time high – though California has seen a drop in some areas.

Canadian tourism in California was down 12% in February compared with the same month last year amid Trump’s tariff war. In response, the state has announced a new campaign to draw Canadians back, while one city has put up pro-Canada signs across its downtown.

Iran has insisted it must be allowed to have its own uranium enrichment capacity for its civil nuclear programme, rejecting a US demand that Tehran must rely exclusively on imported nuclear fuel.

If Washington sticks to the position taken by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, in the third round of talks in Oman on Saturday, the two sides will have hit their first major negotiating hurdle. They are trying to reach an agreement that blocks off Iran’s access to a nuclear bomb in return for relief from economic sanctions.

The Rubio plan is an attempt at compromise between those inside the US administration who say the only certain way to close off Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb is to dismantle its entire nuclear programme and those that say Iran should be allowed to enrich low purity uranium subject to a full external inspection. That proposal is similar to the system set up in the 2015 nuclear deal from which Donald Trump withdrew the US in his first term.

US national security adviser Mike Waltz had argued Tehran must agree to the “full dismantlement” of its nuclear programme.

But Rubio this week told The Free Press podcast: “If Iran wants a civil nuclear programme, they can have one just like many other countries in the world.” He added that Tehran would be required to “import enriched material”.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, speaking in China, said: “If America’s only demand is that Iran not have nuclear weapons, this is an achievable demand, but if it has impractical and illogical demands, it is natural that we will run into problems.”

In the text of a speech he had been due to give virtually to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace this week, Araghchi said: “Iran had a right to be treated with equal respect and this includes our rights as a signatory the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including the ability to produce fuel for our nuclear power plants. Iran must not be treated as an exception within the global non-proliferation framework.

“We have made abundantly clear that we have nothing to hide which is why Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal agreed to the most intrusive inspection regime the world has ever seen.”

Araghchi spoke of Iran’s long-term plan to build at least 19 more nuclear plants, vowing US firms could bid on the projects meaning “tens of billions of dollars in potential contracts are up for grabs”. This was enough alone, he said, to revive the stagnant nuclear industry in the US.

The former CIA director William Burns, speaking this week at the University of Chicago, said: “I don’t personally think that this Iranian regime is going to agree to zero domestic enrichment. And again, in the comprehensive agreement, that was limited to under 5%, which is what you need for a civilian programme, not for a weapons programme. But that’s going to be one of the big challenges”.

The US has appointed Michael Anton to lead a technical team that will work alongside the chief negotiator Steve Witkoff. Anton, a speechwriter, chef and fashionista, is director of policy planning staff at the Department of State and not an expert on nuclear issues. However, he served on the national security staff in the first Donald Trump administration. He will head a team of 12 officials.

Andrea Stricker, a research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said it was “a real risk that Trump could be pushed to negotiate something like an interim deal that would leave Iran’s breakout capability intact with a short timeline to the bomb”.

She added: “We have to remember that Iran only needs a few 100 advanced centrifuges at a secret site to be able to ratchet back up within a couple of months to the level of Iranian stockpiles that it has now, and unless you’re dismantling all of that infrastructure, the equipment, the stockpiles permanently, then you’re not really getting much”.

She predicted Trump may have trouble getting a weak deal through Congress which was “already mobilising on the issue”.

Alleged former members of an international neo-Nazi terrorist organization are claiming its Russia-based and American leader is a Kremlin spy, according to online records reviewed by the Guardian.

The allegation that Rinaldo Nazzaro, a former Pentagon contractor and founder of the Base, listed as a designated terrorist organization all over the world, is an alleged Russian intelligence asset could bring new meaning to his group’s latest effort: sabotage and assassination missions inside Ukraine to weaken the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

A website circulating on far-right Telegram channels is claiming to speak on behalf of former members of the Base and said it was “exposing” the group for what it really is: the cutout of Russia’s federal intelligence agency, the FSB.

The members allege that they were always suspicious of Nazzaro’s behavior and worried about who his handlers really were.

“[Nazzaro] presented himself as an army veteran who has been to Afghanistan, however during gun ranges he mentioned how he’s never touched a shotgun in his life,” wrote the members.

“Things started becoming really SUS when a few members could see him texting on the phone in Russian, in a fluent/at least a good level as he was writing fast and seemingly naturally, all of that alone led to the belief that [Nazzaro] might be a Russian federal asset, and at that time it was already obvious that he was flying to Russia back and forth.”

For example, when a number of Base members were first being arrested, they noted he quickly, “gets into a plane to Russia”.

During the height of the Base’s activities, it came to light that Nazzaro had worked in a top secret capacity as a drone targeting analyst for American special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there were no records of him being in ground combat.

The ex-members also claimed how the Base’s latest venture into Ukraine, where it is offering cash for operatives to carry out assassination and sabotage missions, is a Russian intelligence operation that is gaining traction. Recent videos online show the Base burning military vehicles with Ukrainian license plates, electrical boxes, and other activities inside the country.

The writers said the new Base cell in Ukraine was “bigger than any other fedop” carried out by Nazzaro.

“[Thus] not only are they trying to disrupt the system but also dislocate the Ukrainian forces which AGAIN furthers the interests of Russia,” they said.

Other evidence provided to the Guardian shows that whoever is running the account for the Base’s Ukraine cell on Telegram, has paid for a bot army to up its follower numbers into the tens of thousands.

“How does The Base have money for so [many] bots and rewards for actions?” wrote a user affiliated with the website on Telegram. “I wonder who funds them.”

Nazzaro has increasingly leaned on Russian digital infrastructure to operate his global organization. Posts calling for attacks on Ukraine first appeared on the Base’s VK account, which is hosted in Russia and run by Nazzaro. The recruitment email for the Base is also a Mail.ru address – the email provider of a well-known ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Nazzaro, however, has repeatedly maintained that he is not affiliated with any spy agencies, even making an uncanny appearance on Kremlin state television in 2020, telling a reporter that he “never had any contact with any Russian security services”, something the ex-members also reference.

“That these accusations are also coming from alleged former members of the group is particularly interesting, given inside knowledge of the group they may have and Nazzaro’s role within the global accelerationist white power movement,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a far-right analyst who saw the website and allegations circulating.

The French prime minister, François Bayrou, has called for a crackdown on teenage knife crime after a high-school student stabbed four other children at his school, killing at least one and injuring the others before being arrested.

The 15-year-old reportedly attacked fellow students with a knife during lunch break on Thursday at the private Notre-Dame-de-Toutes-Aides secondary school in the city of Nantes on the Atlantic coast. The attack took place at around 12.30pm (11.30am BST), before teachers overpowered the boy. One female student was killed. At least one other student is in a critical condition in hospital.

“This tragedy shows once again the endemic violence that exists in a part of our youth,” Bayrou said in a statement. “Fundamental questions must be asked in terms of education, values and respect for human life.”

He ordered checks inside and around schools to be intensified immediately. He also said a commission would look into how to deal with teenage knife crime in terms of weapons sales, and the owning and carrying of knives. It would study best practice in other countries across the world.

Praising the “bravery” of the teachers who intervened, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the whole nation shared in the school’s shock and grief.

A police source told France Info that the boy had first targeted a pupil on the second floor of the school and had then attacked three others coming down the stairs. He had gone into two classrooms, the source said. France Info also reported that the boy was carrying two knives.

The boy was in police custody and a psychiatric assessment was being carried out, France Télévisions reported.

The education minister, Élisabeth Borne, and the interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, travelled to the school to show “solidarity with victims and the school community”.

Images from the scene showed police and troops surrounding the school as the investigation began.

An official at the school, which is part of a complex housing a primary and middle school, would not comment on what happened. They said the school was concentrating on caring for the students who were on campus at the time.

The school administration sent a message to the families of the 2,000 or so students who attend the school, informing them of the incident. Students had been immediately confined inside the school.

In the hands of Andy Warhol, trash often became a work of art. So perhaps the pop culture icon would not be too upset to know that in the hands of one Dutch municipality, one of his artworks went the other way and was thrown out with the rubbish.

Maashorst town hall on Thursday confessed that a rare silkscreen print by Warhol, who died in 1987, was among 46 valuable artworks that were “most likely” taken away with the bins during extensive renovation work last year.

“This is not how you treat valuable items,” the mayor, Hans van der Pas, told the public broadcaster NOS. “It is a serious matter when public property, especially art with cultural and historic value, is treated so carelessly … But it happened. We regret that.”

The town hall said the works, including a 1980s Warhol silkscreen print of the then Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, were part of a collection from the borough of Uden, which merged with others three years ago to form Maashorst.

Before the reorganisation, an inventory was made of the borough’s collection, which was then split up. Some pieces were loaned to a local museum, others placed in the new town hall and some returned to the artists. In the process, 46 went missing.

“It’s most likely that the artworks were accidentally taken away with the rubbish,” Maashorst town hall said after receiving a report from an independent investigations agency it had hired to find out what had happened.

The agency concluded there were several reasons why the artworks could have been taken out with the trash, including a complete absence of any policies, procedures or guidelines for “the registration, storage, conservation and security of artworks”.

Many of the artworks were stored in a town hall basement during the renovation work “but were not handled with care”, the agency reported. Several had sustained water and other damage when they were last seen in 2023.

Queen Beatrix was part of Warhol’s 1985 series Reigning Queens, a series of 16 colourful prints of four monarchs: Elizabeth II of England, Beatrix of the Netherlands, Margrethe II of Denmark and Ntombi Twala of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).

The artist based the silkscreens on the queens’ official state portraits, choosing them because they were often mass-produced, including on stamps and currency.

Maashorst said it was unlikely the missing artworks would ever be recovered.