Police shot dead a man in northern France on Friday after he tried to burn down a synagogue in the city of Rouen and attacked officers who tried to arrest him, French authorities said.
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, mayor of Rouen, a city of around 110,000 inhabitants, told the press that firefighters had brought the flames under control and that no one other than the attacker was injured.
The identity and motivations of the man who attacked the synagogue were not immediately clear, but French authorities consider it an anti-Semitic act. Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into “religiously motivated arson” and assault.
French authorities have sounded the alarm over a surge in anti-Semitic incidents across the country in recent months, against a backdrop of the war in Gaza. Mr Mayer-Rossignol said it was still under investigation but was “in all likelihood a profoundly anti-Semitic act”.
Anyone who attacks the Jewish community, he added, “attacks the whole of France.”
Mr. Mayer-Rossignol said the police’s initial findings were that the man broke into the synagogue by climbing on top of a trash can around 6:30 a.m. He reached the first floor and threw an “incendiary element” inside, starting a fire which caused “significant damage” but did not harm anyone, said Mr. Mayer-Rossignol.
The synagogue is located in the historic center of Rouen, a short walk from the city’s famous cathedral.
“The fire caused a lot of damage,” Natacha Ben Haïm, head of the local Jewish community association, told reporters, adding that furniture had burned, walls blackened and parts of the roof had collapsed. “It’s terrible,” she said.
Frédéric Teillet, prosecutor general of Rouen, said at a press conference that firefighters and police officers who quickly arrived on the scene saw smoke coming from the windows of the synagogue and a man on the roof with a knife. kitchen in one hand and a metal chisel in the other. The other.
The man shouted at the officers, threw the scissor at them, jumped off the roof and then brandished the knife as he ran toward one of the officers, ignoring orders to stop, Mr. Teillet said.
The police officer fired five shots, four of which hit the man, Mr. Teillet said.
Teillet said the man was in possession of a local transit pass with a name on it, but investigators were still verifying his identity.
France is on alert facing the risks of terrorist attacks and other potential threats to its security, especially as the Summer Olympics approach in Paris, which should start in July.
The country has been marked by large-scale Islamist terrorist attacks in 2015 And 2016and a series of smaller but still deadly shootings and stabbings over the next few years allowed security and intelligence forces remain on guard.
France is currently at its highest terrorist alert level, raised in March after a deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow this was claimed by the Islamic State.
The war in Gaza and increased tensions between Israel and Iran have also worried authorities about potential repercussions in France, home to some of Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim populations.
In April, after Iran launched airstrikes against IsraelMr. Darmanin ordered increased security at synagogues and Jewish schools across France.
Gabriel Attal, the French Prime Minister, said this month that more than 360 anti-Semitic incidents – including threats, assaults and other acts – were recorded in France in the first three months of 2024, an increase of 300% compared to the previous year.
After the Rouen attack, Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, declared in a post on social media“Setting fire to a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. »
The attack and shooting in Rouen took place a few days later a Holocaust memorial vandalized in Paris. The memorial, a wall of names that honors those who helped save Jews in France during World War II, was defaced with graffiti depicting red hands.
Chmouel Lubecki, rabbi of the Rouen synagogue, declared to the BFMTV news channel that he had not been aware of specific threats against the synagogue, but he deplored a climate of “tensions” and declared that the fire had not surprised him.
“We had this fear within us, but when it happens, it’s still shocking,” Rabbi Lubecki said. He urged the Jewish community to light candles for Shabbat Friday “to show that we are not afraid and that we continue to practice our Judaism despite the circumstances.”
