French authorities launched an anti-terrorist investigation on Saturday into an explosion outside a synagogue in La Grande-Motte, in the south of the country, which left one police officer injured. Two cars, one of them carrying a gas cylinder, were set on fire outside the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the coastal town, located about 25 km from Montpellier, police said.
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Following the explosion, a fire also broke out at the entrance to the synagogue, but the flames were quickly extinguished, investigators said.
Two doors of the church were damaged. A municipal police officer who was called to the scene of the fire was injured, La Grande-Motte mayor Stéphan Rossignol told AFP, without giving details of his condition.
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced a “terrorist act” and said in a message on X that “the fight against anti-Semitism” is a daily battle.
Authorities have called for increased security around Jewish places of worship. Rossignol said that images captured by surveillance cameras show an individual setting fire to cars.
According to a source close to the case, the footage also shows a suspect carrying a Palestinian flag. Another source said the man was carrying two empty bottles and had a Palestinian flag on his hip.
He left the scene on foot. One of the images also appeared to show him armed, possibly with a 9mm pistol, the source added.
La Grande-Motte has about 8,500 inhabitants, but its population swells during the summer tourist season. France and other European countries have raised their state of alert since the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip began on October 7.
“An anti-Semitic act”
Outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office was in charge of the investigation. “The synagogue of La Grande-Motte was the target of an attack this morning,” he wrote on X.
“An anti-Semitic act. Once again, our Jewish fellow citizens are the target,” he added. The explosion occurred during the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest for Jews. But at that time there was no work in progress, according to a source from the gendarmerie in charge of the investigation.
“There were five people inside the synagogue, including the rabbi, who were not injured,” the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described the attack as “clearly criminal.”
“All means are being used to find the perpetrator,” he said, ordering increased police presence at all Jewish places of worship in France. Darmanin and Attal will travel to the scene of the explosion, which police say was caused by a gas cylinder hidden in one of the cars.
France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, and also the largest Muslim community in the European Union. The French government recorded 887 anti-Semitic acts in the first half of 2024, almost three times as many as in the same period in 2023.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) called the explosion an “attack on Jewish lives.” “The use of a gas cylinder in a car at the time when worshippers are expected to arrive at the synagogue is not simply a criminal arson,” CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told AFP. “This shows an intent to kill,” he said.
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