LA GRANDE-MOTTE, France: Police arrested a person suspected of setting fires and inflicting an explosion at a synagogue in southern France on Saturday (Aug 24) in what officers suspect was a terror assault, the nation’s inside minister stated.
“The suspected perpetrator of the legal fires on the synagogue has been detained,” minister Gerard Darmanin stated on X, including that officers who made the arrest got here below hearth.
Police earlier stated they had been looking for a person who, draped in a Palestinian flag, was believed to have set fires at a synagogue and triggered an explosion that injured an officer within the seaside resort of La Grande Motte.
An official supply who requested to not be named informed AFP the arrest occurred within the close by city of Nimes. An official within the state prosecution service added that two folks related to the suspect had been additionally detained.
France’s interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal earlier visited the positioning of the assault together with Darmanin and stated: “We narrowly averted an absolute tragedy.”
“As soon as extra, French Jews have been focused and attacked on account of their beliefs,” Attal stated.
“If the synagogue had been stuffed with worshippers … there in all probability would have been human victims.”
Safety round Jewish websites was tightened following the assault early Saturday at Beth Yaacov synagogue in La Grande Motte, close to town of Montpellier.
Two vehicles outdoors the synagogue had been set alight, with a gasoline canister then possible exploding inside one of many autos, police stated.
Two fires had been additionally began on the entrance of the synagogue, damaging two doorways, however had been shortly put out, investigators stated.
The wounded police officer had been injured by the blast after speeding to the scene after the fires had been began, police stated.
President Emmanuel Macron referred to as the incident “an act of terror”, including on X: “The combat towards anti-Semitism is a each day combat.”
He stated “all means are being deployed” to apprehend the suspect.
La Grande Motte’s mayor, Stephan Rossignol, stated that CCTV had picked up pictures of a person setting hearth to the vehicles.
In a part of the footage, watched and authenticated by AFP, a person is seen with a Palestinian flag draped round his waist, his head coated by a crimson Palestinian keffiyeh.
The person carried two bottles stuffed with a yellowish liquid. The footage additionally appears to indicate the contours of a handgun.
Sources near the investigation stated the suspect left the scene on foot.
The fires and explosion got here amid a heightened state of alert in France and different European international locations due to the conflict in Gaza.
