NICE, France (AP) — French police have apprehended and detained a suspect in an arson attack on a synagogue in a southwestern Mediterranean town that injured a police officer, the country’s acting interior minister said Sunday.
Two cars parked at the Beth Yaacov synagogue complex in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte, near Montpellier, were set ablaze just after 8 a.m. Saturday. Firefighters discovered additional fires at two entrances to the synagogue. A police officer who walked up to the site was injured after a propane gas tank placed near the burning vehicles exploded.
Five people, including the rabbi, who were present in the synagogue complex at the time of the attack were unharmed, it added.
“The alleged perpetrator of the arson attack on the synagogue has been arrested,” Gerald Darmanin, the acting interior minister, said in a post on X. He visited the site on Saturday afternoon along with acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and met with local officials and the synagogue staff.
Darmanin also hailed the “professional conduct” of police forces and its elite intervention unit “despite the gunfire” during the operation.
French prosecutors said the man was arrested in the southern city of Nimes shortly before midnight Saturday.
“He opened fire on the police intervention unit, which returned fire, injuring (the suspect) in the face,” the National Antiterrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Sunday. Two other people linked to the suspect were also taken into custody, it added.
Prosecutors were investigating the attack as an attempted assassination linked to a terrorist group and destruction of property with dangerous means, and a crime planned by a terrorist group with an intent to cause harm, the statement said.
After the attack Saturday, Darmanin ordered police reinforcements to protect Jewish places of worship following what was “clearly a criminal act.”
“I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens of my full support and say that at the request of President Emmanuel Macron all means are being mobilized to find the perpetrator,” Darmanin posted on X. He ordered more police officers deployed at Jewish places of worship around the country following a surge of antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
The mayor of La Grande Motte, Stéphan Rossignol, said that investigators were reviewing the city’s surveillance videos and said that a lone suspect was spotted at the site of the attack.
“The individual in question did not manage to get inside the synagogue, even though that was clearly his objective.” Rossignol said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.
Prosecutors said a male suspect spotted in surveillance videos fleeing the site was carrying a Palestinian flag and a weapon. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations amid an ongoing investigation.
President Emmanuel Macron said the synagogue attack was a “terrorist act” and assured that ”everything is being done to find (the) perpetrator.”
“The fight against antisemitism is a constant battle,” Macron said on X.
Attal, the acting prime minister, said the synagogue was targeted in the “antisemitic attack,” a “shocking and appalling” act of violence.
“Once again, French Jews have been targeted and attacked because of their beliefs,” Attal said after meetings in La Grand Motte. “We are outraged and repulsed.”