Armed man who set fire to Rouen synagogue shot dead
A man armed with a knife and an iron bar who set fire to a synagogue in the city of Rouen yesterday was shot dead by French police.
As he travelled to visit the firedamaged synagogue, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said France was “deeply affected” by what he called an antisemitic act.
He said the government was “extremely determined to continue to fully protect Jewish people in France, wherever they are, and Jews should practice their religion without fear”.
Emergency services were alerted at 6.45am after fire was detected at the synagogue in the Normandy city 80 miles (130km) north-west of Paris.
The man was spotted on the synagogue roof brandishing an iron bar and a kitchen knife, said the prosecutor handling the case, Frederic Teillet. Smoke was coming out of one window of the building.
The attacker jumped down and ran towards a police officer, shouting and threatening him with a knife. The officer warned him to stop but he continued. The officer then shot him five times, hitting him four times, Teillet said. The man died at the scene.
Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the mayor of Rouen, said there was extensive damage but no one else was harmed. He said: “An armed man somehow climbed up the synagogue and threw an object, a sort of molotov cocktail, into the main prayer room.”
Firefighters arrived and the blaze was brought under control.
The interior ministry said the attacker was Algerian and not known to police or flagged as an extremist suspect. In 2022 he had asked for a permit to be in France as a foreigner seeking medical treatment. This request was turned down. An appeal was rejected and he was subject to an order to be expelled from France.
Tensions have grown in France over the Israel-Gaza war. Antisemitic acts have surged in the country, which has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe.
The synagogue’s rabbi, Chmouel Lubecki, said his wife was present at the time of the attack. “We were very scared,” he told French media. He said his wife “heard gunshots and screams … and then she saw smoke coming from the synagogue”.
Lubecki added: “We expected [an attack], unfortunately … We had this fear inside of us, but when it actually happens it is still shocking.”
Natacha Ben Haïm, the president of a Normandy Jewish group, said the synagogue’s walls and furniture had been blackened by the fire and smoke. “It is catastrophic. Yes, I am upset, I am very upset,” she said.
Elias Morisse, who lives opposite the synagogue, said he heard gunshots and explosions. “I decided to open the shutters of my apartment, and indeed I saw smoke coming from the synagogue, the police, the firefighters and in the street a body,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Mayer-Rossignol said the entire city was “bruised and in shock” and called for a gathering outside the city hall in solidarity against the attack.
Two investigations have been opened, one into the fire and a second into the circumstances of the death of the attacker.