French police on Friday shot dead a man armed with a knife and a crowbar who tried to set fire to a synagogue in the northern city of Rouen, adding to concerns over anti-Semitic violence in the country.
Emergency services were alerted after a fire was detected at the synagogue, with the man spotted on its roof brandishing an iron bar and a kitchen knife, the prosecutor handling the case said.
Smoke was coming out of one synagogue window, Rouen prosecutor Frederic Teillet told reporters.
The attacker ran towards a police officer threatening him with a knife. The officer then "shot him five times, hitting him four times", the prosecutor said. The man died at the scene.
"National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city's synagogue," Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Speaking to reporters in Rouen, Darmanin said the attempt to set fire to the synagogue was an "anti-Semitic act against a place that is sacred to the Republic" and that he regretted the "unacceptable, despicable" violence against Jewish people in France.
The suspect, who has not been named, was an Algerian national who had sought medical treatment in France and wasn’t flagged as a suspected extremist, said Darmanin.
France’s interior minister praised the 25-year-old police officer who shot and killed the man, saying he will be decorated for his “extremely courageous, extremely professional” response.
'A fright for the whole nation'
Tensions have mounted in France over the Israel-Hamas war. Anti-Semitic acts have increased in the country, which has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe.
Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the attacker is thought to have climbed onto a trash container and thrown “a sort of Molotov cocktail” inside the synagogue, starting a fire and causing “significant damage.”
“When the Jewish community is attacked, it's an attack on the national community, an attack on France, an attack on all French citizens," he said.
“It’s a fright for the whole nation,” he added.
In Paris, Yonathan Arfi, head of the main French Jewish umbrella group, expressed fury at what he described as the “climate of terror” facing Jews in France.
“It’s unbearable. It’s more and more serious every day," said Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).
Red hand graffiti was painted onto France's Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned "odious anti-Semitism".
"Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic," Arfi said on X.
'Body in the street'
The synagogue is in the historic centre of the city, the main city of the northern region of Normandy that lies on the River Seine.
A resident, Elias Morisse, who lives opposite the synagogue, said he heard gunshots and explosions.
"I decided to open the shutters of my apartment, and indeed I saw smoke coming from the synagogue, the police, the firefighters and in the street a body – that of the attacker who was shot," he said.
Separate investigations into the fire at the synagogue and into the circumstances of the death of the man have been opened, prosecutors said.
France's police inspectorate opens an investigation whenever an individual is killed by the police.
Since 2015, France has seen a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France's security alert remains at its highest level.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced this month that 366 anti-Semitic incidents had been recorded in France in the first quarter of 2024, a 300 percent increase compared to the first three months of 2023.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
