A West Yorkshire teacher has been suspended after reportedly showing an “offensive” caricature of the Prophet Mohammed during a religious studies lesson, sparking a protest outside the school.

Protesters had gathered outside Batley Grammar School, near Bradford, on Thursday, following claims a member of staff had shown students a cartoon deemed offensive to the Islamic faith.

Pictures circulating on social media earlier in the day showed dozens of people stood outside the school gates, partially blocking the road.

The school has “unequivocally” apologised for showing “totally inappropriate” material to children and said a member of staff has been suspended pending an investigation.

Dr Abdul Shaikh, a local academic in Batley and Muslim activist, said he had heard about the incident on social media on Wednesday night.

Speaking to the PA news agency, he said: “I was shocked like many Muslims in the town that Muslim school children’s religious sensitivities were completely ignored by the school teacher who decided to show an offensive image that lampooned the noble Prophet Mohammed.

“Every Muslim around the world holds the Prophet in the highest esteem.

“I feel that the school should be allowed to complete their investigation in due course and find a fair and adequate solution that satisfies first and foremost Muslim pupils, their parents and the wider Muslim community in Batley.

“This situation should not be allowed to happen again for the sake of community cohesion in the area.”

West Yorkshire Police said they were called to the protest at around 7.30am on Thursday.

A police spokesman said the school road had been closed for a short time, no arrests were made and no fines were issued.

In a statement, Batley Grammar School head teacher Gary Kibble said: “The school unequivocally apologises for using a totally inappropriate resource in a recent religious studies lesson.

“The member of staff has also given their most sincere apologies.

“We have immediately withdrawn teaching on this part of the course and we are reviewing how we go forward with the support of all the communities represented in our school.

“It is important for children to learn about faiths and beliefs, but this must be done in a sensitive way.

“The member of staff has been suspended pending an independent formal investigation.”

In a letter addressed to Mr Kibble and shared online, founder of Batley-based charity Purpose Of Life, Mohammad Sajad Hussain, said he was “deeply hurt” by the “insulting caricatures of our beloved Prophet Mohammed”.

He said the charity is unwilling to work with or promote the school until the teacher is “permanently removed”.

However, the National Secular Society branded the protest as an “attempt to impose an Islamic blasphemy taboo on a school”.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said: “Teachers must have a reasonable degree of freedom to explore sensitive subjects and enable students to think critically about them.

“And the school’s weak response will fuel a climate of censorship, which is brought on by attempts to force society as a whole to accommodate unreasonable and reactionary religious views.”

France’s president has named a domestic militant Islamist group as “directly implicated” in last week’s beheading of a history teacher who had discussed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed with his class.

Emmanuel Macron said the group will be ordered dissolved on Wednesday, when a mosque that relayed a denunciation of the high school teacher is also to shut.

Speaking after a meeting with regional officials working to counter radical Islamists, Mr Macron added that other associations and individuals are on the radar to be shut or silenced.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people gathered in drizzly rain to honour Samuel Paty where he was beheaded on Friday as he left school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris.

Mounds of bouquets of flowers were piled in front of the school.

A terror investigation is under way into the murder by an 18-year-old Moscow-born Chechen refugee, who was later shot dead by police.

The killer has been identified by authorities as Abdoullakh Anzorov.

Mr Paty had shown caricatures of the prophet of Islam to his class earlier this month.

His civics course led to parental complaints and threats.

Sixteen people were detained, including members of the killer’s family and five young adolescent students at Mr Paty’s school.

Investigators are trying to learn how the killer, who lived in the Normandy town of Evreux, set up his encounter with Mr Paty, whether there was complicity and whether the beheading was premeditated.

Speaking in the Seine-St-Denis region, northeast of Paris, Mr Macron reiterated that he wants “tangible results” to combat “an ideology of destruction of the (French) Republic”.

Mr Macron said a group called the Collective Cheikh Yassine will be ordered dissolved at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

Named after a killed leader of the Palestinian organisation Hamas, the group was founded in the early 2000s by a man who is among those detained for questioning.

Mr Macron did not provide details on how the group was “directly implicated” in the attack.

Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said later on BFMTV that the person in question helped disseminate the virulent message of a student’s father against the teacher.

Mr Macron has asked for quick, concrete action in the case.

The French president is waging war on what he calls “separatism”, referring to Islamist extremism that authorities say has created a parallel world in the country that counters French values.

A mosque in the northeast Paris suburb of Pantin is also being closed for six months starting on Wednesday night.

A sign posted by the regional prefecture at the mosque entrance said the house of worship would be closed for six months – with a six-month prison sentence for violators.

The Pantin mosque is being punished for relaying a message on social media from the father of a student with a virulent complaint about Mr Paty.

The father quoted his 13-year-old daughter as saying the teacher had asked Muslims to leave the classroom – a version that was contested by Mr Paty himself, according to press reports.

Authorities say the mosque has long had an imam following the Salafist path, a rigorous interpretation of the Muslim holy book.

Pantin was also the home of an 18-year-old Pakistani refugee who three weeks earlier attacked and injured two people with a meat cleaver.

A national memorial event will be held on Wednesday evening to pay tribute to Mr Paty in the courtyard of Sorbonne university, a centuries-old symbol of the “spirit of Enlightenment” and “a forum to express ideas and freedoms”, the French presidency said.

Read more: French leader decries Islamist terror attack against teacher