French police have arrested a man suspected of trying to set a synagogue ablaze in the southern French city of la Grande-Motte on Saturday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
About 200 police officers had been hunting for the suspect, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said earlier, adding that the attacker had set fire to several entry doors to the synagogue and several cars nearby. “This is an antisemitic attack. Once more, our Jewish compatriots are targeted,” Attal said on X. “In the face of antisemitism, in the face of violence, we will never allow ourselves to be intimidated.”
BFM TV said the suspect was a 33-year-old Algerian. Local police declined to give details.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, which was put in charge of the investigation, said early on Sunday that a suspect had been arrested in Nîmes on Saturday evening.
“Before the police could intervene, (the suspect) opened fire on the (police), which returned fire. The man was wounded in the face,” the office said in a statement, adding that two other people were taken into custody.
In the hours that followed (the arson attack on the synagogue) , the investigators became interested in the video protection cameras of the place of worship. On the images, they note the presence of a suspect. The latter is flying a Palestinian flag, as well as a weapon, BFMTV learned from sources close to the investigation. He is seen leaving the scene on foot.
On Saturday evening, around 11:30 p.m., the suspect was arrested on the top floor of a tower located in the Pissevin district, in Nîmes, in the Gard, BFMTV learned from sources close to the investigation. The arrest was carried out by police officers belonging to the BRI of Montpellier and Marseille and the elite service of the RAID in an apartment that was not his home.
During the intervention, the suspect opened fire on the police, who returned fire. Hit several times in the face, he was taken to hospital. He is still receiving treatment on Sunday, but his prognosis is not life-threatening.
Little is known about his profile. According to our information, he is 33 years old and of Algerian nationality. He is in a legal situation on French territory, where he arrived in the mid-2010s, we learned from sources close to the case. Father of a child born in France, he was for a time domiciled in La Grande-Motte and Nîmes.
Before this case, the suspect was known to the police for “drug use”. On the other hand, he was completely unknown to the intelligence services.
In addition to the suspect, two other people from his entourage were arrested by the police. They are two men in their thirties who are simply “relations” of the main suspect. A third person, not counting the main suspect, was arrested and placed in police custody, BFMTV learned this Sunday morning from a source close to the investigation.
The LR mayor of La Grande-Motte Stéphane Rossignol confided his “relief” this Sunday on BFMTV after the arrest of this “extremely dangerous” individual. “We have avoided the worst,” he said.
As somebody else said on X It is 2024 and a man tried to burn Jews alive in their house of prayer. We can’t look away from antisemitism…
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One Response
Europe’s Problems with North African Migrants
17 June 2017
Germans, and other Europeans, have become anti-migrants, or xenophobes. It’s not that they inherently dislike foreigners, but they are concerned about the future of their societies. They want to walk freely in their streets, their young women expect safety, when they get out. Above all, they are not going to alter their lifestyles, to accommodate migrants. Ultimately, Europeans have come to realize that they are unable to solve other nations’ endemic problems, which must be dealt with at their sources. Indeed, what an impasse!