French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin walk outside the city’s synagogue, after cars were set on fire in front of the synagogue, in La Grande-Motte, France, August 24, 2024. REUTERS/Manon Cruz
| Photo Credit: Reuters

French police apprehended and detained the suspect behind the arson attack on a synagogue in a southwestern Mediterranean town that injured a police officer, the country’s acting interior minister said early Sunday (August 25, 2024).

Two cars parked at the Beth Yaacov synagogue complex in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte near Montpellier were set ablaze just after 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) Saturday (August 24, 2024), the National Antiterrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Saturday (August 24, 2024).

“The alleged perpetrator of the arson attack on the synagogue has been arrested,” Gerald Darmanin, the acting interior minister, said in a post on X. He visited the site on Saturday (August 24, 2024) afternoon along with acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and met with local officials and the synagogue staff.

Mr. Darmanin also hailed the “professional conduct” of police forces and its elite intervention unit “despite the gunfire” during the operation. He did not provide further information.

“Firefighters discovered additional fires at two entrances to the synagogue. A police officer who walked up to the site was injured after a propane gas tank in one of the vehicles exploded,” the prosecutor’s statement said.

“Five people, including the rabbi, who were present in the synagogue complex at the time of the attack were unharmed,” it added.

“Prosecutors were investigating the attack as an attempted assassination linked to a terrorist group and destruction of property with dangerous means, and a crime planned by a terrorist group with an intent to cause harm,” the statement said.

After the attack Saturday (August 24, 2024), Mr. Darmanin ordered police reinforcement to protect Jewish places of worship following what was “clearly a criminal act.”

“I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens of my full support and say that at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, all means are being mobilised to find the perpetrator,” Mr. Darmanin posted on X. He ordered more police officers deployed at Jewish places of worship around the country following a surge of antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October.

The mayor of La Grande Motte, Stéphan Rossignol, said that investigators were reviewing the city’s surveillance videos and said that a lone suspect was spotted at the site of the attack.

“The individual in question did not manage to get inside the synagogue, even though that was clearly his objective.” Mr. Rossignol said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.

Prosecutors said a male suspect spotted in surveillance videos fleeing the site was carrying a Palestinian flag and a weapon. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations amid an ongoing investigation.

President Emmanuel Macron said the synagogue attack was a “terrorist act” and assured that “everything is being done to find (the) perpetrator”.

“The fight against antisemitism is a constant battle,” Mr. Macron said on X.

Mr. Attal, the acting Prime Minister, said the synagogue was targeted in the “antisemitic attack,” a “shocking and appalling” act of violence.

“Once again, French Jews have been targeted and attacked because of their beliefs,” Mr. Attal said after meetings in La Grand Motte. “We are outraged and repulsed.”

“At least 200 police officers and other security personnel have been deployed to apprehend the perpetrator,” Mr. Attal added.

The assailant who hit the synagogue on the Shabbat morning was “very determined” to cause damage and casualties, Mr. Attal said and added that preliminary evidence collected by investigators shows that “we have narrowly avoided a tragedy.”

Law enforcement officers and firefighters stand in front of a burnt building nearby a synagogue following the fire and explosion of cars in La Grande-Motte, south of France, on August 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An explosion outside a synagogue in southern France wounded a police officer early on Saturday (August 24, 2024), in what authorities said was being treated as a potential terror attack.

Security around Jewish sites was tightened following the early Saturday (August 24, 2024) blast outside the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte, near the city of Montpellier.

A fire was also started at the entrance of the synagogue, but was quickly put out, with two doors damaged, investigators said.

President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “an act of terror”, adding on X that “the fight against anti-Semitism is a daily fight”.

Two cars outside the synagogue burst into flames after a gas canister likely exploded inside one of the vehicles, police said. The blast wounded a police officer, police said, without providing any other details.

La Grande Motte’s mayor, Stephan Rossignol, said that CCTV had picked up images of an individual setting fire to the cars.

The potential suspect seen in the footage was brandishing a Palestinian flag, a source close to the probe added.

Another source said that the man was carrying two empty bottles and had a Palestinian flag draped around his waist as left the scene on foot.

One of the images also appeared to show him to be armed, possibly with a 9mm pistol, the source added.

The explosion comes amid a heightened state of alert in France and other European countries because of the war in Gaza.

‘Anti-Semitic act’

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said France’s national anti-terror prosecutors had been tasked with probing the incident.

“La Grande Motte’s synagogue was the target of an attack this morning,” Mr. Attal said in a post on X. “An anti-Semitic act. Once again, our Jewish fellow citizens are being targeted.”

Earlier, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called the incident “an obviously criminal act”.

He said “all means are being deployed to find the perpetrator”.

The police presence outside Jewish sites in France would be increased following the explosion, the minister added. Mr. Darmanin and Mr. Attal were to travel to the site of the explosion later on Saturday (August 24, 2024).

The blast occurred during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest that runs from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, with many attending synagogue services.

There was, however, no religious service ongoing at the time of the incident, a police source said. A rabbi and four other people were inside the synagogue at the time but all were unharmed, investigators said.

There was no immediate information about the gravity of the police officer’s injuries.

The town of La Grande Motte has about 8,500 permanent residents but the population swells during the summer tourism season.

Mr. Darmanin said this month that the government had counted 887 anti-Semitic acts in France in the first half of 2024, nearly three times as many as in the same period in 2023.

France is home to the biggest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, and also to the largest Muslim community in the European Union.

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) called the explosion “an attempt to kill Jews”.

The use of a gas canister “in a car at a time when worshippers are expected to arrive at the synagogue is not simply a criminal act”, CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told AFP. “This shows an intention to kill.”