Police in France have shot dead an armed man who set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen, the interior ministry said, amid fears of rising antisemitic attacks in Europe.
Officers were called to the scene around 6.45am local time after smoke was seen rising from the synagogue.
The suspect was armed with a knife and an iron bar and was approaching police when he was shot dead, according to reports.
The attacker’s identity and motive were still unclear.
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said the armed individual was "neutralised" on Friday morning and thanked officers for their "reactivity and their courage”.
“In Rouen, national police officers neutralized early this morning an armed individual clearly wanting to set fire to the city’s synagogue. I congratulate them for their responsiveness and courage,” the post said.
Firefighters are at the scene and the blaze has been brought under control, a Rouen city hall official said.
Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignaol, speaking at the site of the shooting, said no one other than the suspect was harmed in the incident and his thoughts are with the city’s Jewish community.
He added that the Normandy town was “battered and shocked”.
Elie Korchia, the president of France‘s Consistoire Central Jewish worshippers’ body, said police had “avoided another antisemitic tragedy”.
The man was trying to set ablaze the main city synagogue and then tried to threaten officers when confronted, investigative sources said.
The Rouen incident came as France was in the middle of preparations to host this summer’s Olympic Games, which are due to get underway in just two months. It had recently raised its alert status to the highest level against a complex geopolitical backdrop in the Middle East and Europe’s eastern flank.
Like the rest of the western Europe, France has seen a spike in antisemitic incidents since Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza began in October.
On 13 May, a Paris Holocaust memorial was vandalised and defaced with impressions of red-painted hands. President Emmanuel Macron said the incident at the memorial “undermined the memory” of France’s heroes as well as the victims of the Holocaust.
