A man armed with a knife and metal bar was shot and killed by police after attempting to set fire to a synagogue in the city of Rouen, France, on Friday morning.
According to a source close to the case, the man was armed with “a knife and an iron bar”. He threatened a police officer, who used his weapon, according to the Rouen public prosecutor.
At around 6:45 a.m., police officers intervened following “a report of smoke development near the synagogue”, located in Rouen’s historic center, according to a police source quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The fire caused some damage to the synagogue, though no one was hurt, according to news reports.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on X : “In Rouen, national police officers neutralized an armed individual early this morning who was clearly intent on setting fire to the city’s synagogue. I congratulate them on their responsiveness and courage.’’
“An individual set fire to the synagogue in Rouen. He is said to have attacked police officers and firefighters”, said Rouen public prosecutor Frédéric Teillet.
The suspect had been under an obligation to leave the country for “less than a year”, but this could not be enforced because he “had lodged an appeal with the administrative courts..
Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said firefighters brought the fire under control and there were “no victims other than the armed individual”. “Through this attack and attempted firebombing of the Rouen synagogue, it is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and shocked,” he wrote on X.
For Yonathan Arfi, President of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (Crif), “once again, this act aims to install a climate of terror among the Jews of France”. He denounced an “increase in seriousness” of anti-Semitic acts following the inscription of some twenty red hands, a controversial symbol once brandished at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, on the Wall of the Righteous outside the Shoah Memorial in Paris, earlier this week. “Anti-Semitism always responds to a mimicry and spillover effect; to attack a synagogue is to attack the most visible symbol of the presence of Jews in society. To set it on fire is to seek to conceal our presence.”
Elie Korchia, President of the Central Jewish Consistory, declared: “In the climate of exacerbated anti-Semitism that we have been experiencing for the past few months, this very serious and rather unique act creates a feeling of great concern.’’’’ But we are also relieved to see how quickly and efficiently police forces intervened, thanks to the security measures put in place recently,’’