Agencies
Paris
French authorities have opened a “terrorism investigation” after an arson attack on a synagogue in a southwestern Mediterranean town injured a police officer and security forces searched for a suspect.
Two cars parked at the Beth Yaacov synagogue complex in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte near Montpellier were set ablaze on Saturday, the National Anti-terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
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 detonated, the statement said.
Five people, including the rabbi, who were present in the synagogue complex at the time of the attack were unharmed, it added. Several French news outlets reported that the injured police officer’s life was not in danger.
The search for the fugitive perpetrator continued following the explosion in front of a synagogue in the south of France, according to acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Saturday. Almost 200 police officers and gendarmes have been deployed. “We can assume that we have narrowly escaped an absolute tragedy,” said Attal.
The town of La Grande Motte has about 8,500 permanent residents but the population swells during the tourism season in the summer.
President Emmanuel Macron said the synagogue attack was a “terrorist act” and stressed that “everything is being done to find (its) perpetrator.”
“The fight against anti-Semitism is a constant battle,” Macron said on X.
Acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also said the synagogue was targeted in an “act of anti-Semitism”.
Acting Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered police reinforcement to protect Jewish places of worship and said the incident was being treated as an “attempted arson” that is “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 mobilizsd to find the perpetrator,” Darmanin wrote on X.
