PARIS — French police shot and killed a person armed with a knife and a steel bar who’s suspected of getting prepared hearth to a synagogue within the Normandy town of Rouen early on Friday, government stated.
Internal Minister Gerald Darmanin posted at the social media website online X that the armed person was once “neutralized.”
“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 reactivity and their courage,” he stated.
Nationwide police stated the officials have been alerted early Friday morning that smoke was once emerging from the synagogue and got here head to head with the person after they were given there. The nationwide police knowledge provider stated the person surged towards officials with a knife and a steel bar. An officer opened hearth and fatally wounded the person, police stated.
Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol stated the person is assumed to have climbed onto a trash container and thrown “a sort of Molotov cocktail” throughout the synagogue, inauguration a hearth and inflicting “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 stated.
“It’s a fright for the whole nation,” he added.
Tensions and rage have grown in France over the Israel-Hamas warfare. Antisemitic acts have surged within the nation, which has the biggest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe.
