Antiterrorism prosecutors said officers had taken a man into custody in connection with a blast outside a synagogue.
French authorities announced Sunday shortly after midnight that they had detained a suspect in connection with Saturday morning’s attack on a synagogue in southern France, which is being investigated as a terrorist act.
As law enforcement officers were trying to arrest the suspect around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, he opened fire, the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that the officers had returned fire. In the process, the man was wounded in the face, the statement said. The extent of his injuries and whether the arresting officers were injured were not immediately clear.
Two other people were also taken into custody, the statement said, referring to them as members of the suspect’s “entourage” without providing further details.
The suspect was arrested in Nîmes, a city about 24 miles from La Grande Motte, the resort town on the southern coast where the attack took place. Two vehicles exploded outside a synagogue. The doors to the building were also set on fire, the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office said.
French authorities have publicly condemned the attack, which comes during a time of mounting fears about antisemitism in the country. In the first three months of 2024, France recorded more than 360 antisemitic episodes. That is an average of four a day — and an increase of 300 percent over the same period in 2023, the government said.
“To attack a French person because he is Jewish is to attack all French people,” Gabriel Attal, the prime minister, wrote on the social media platform X before the arrest, adding that nearly 200 law enforcement officers had been mobilized to find the suspect.
The attack has sharpened anxiety and reopened painful memories for Jews across France, which has the largest Jewish population in Western Europe and a history of deadly, antisemitic attacks and messaging.
The war in Gaza has only heightened tensions and debates about antisemitism in France, where antisemitism and support for Israel emerged as prominent themes in the recent national elections.
The far-right National Rally party, once known for antisemitism and tinged with Nazi nostalgia, emphatically expressed its support for Israel. The left, by contrast, tends to be pro-Palestinian in policies and statements.
The attack on the synagogue in La Grande Motte could have been far worse. Five people, including the rabbi, were inside when the vehicles exploded. No one was killed, but one police officer responding to the explosions was hurt when a gas bottle near one of the vehicles exploded, the antiterrorism unit said.
National antiterrorism prosecutors are investigating the episode as a terrorism-motivated assassination attempt, among other charges.
“We probably avoided an absolute tragedy,” Mr. Attal, the prime minister, wrote on X.
Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
