A man armed with a knife and a "perforated chisel" who tried to set fire to a synagogue in France has been shot dead by police.
Officers rushed to the scene at around 6:45am as smoke was seen coming out of the building in Rouen, Normandy, when the knifeman rushed at them. One of the officers then opened fire and shot the man dead. The shocking confrontation follows guards being placed around all of France’s synagogues because of heightened tensions surrounding the Israel-Gaza conflict.
National police said the officers were alerted early Friday morning that smoke was rising from the synagogue and came face to face with the man when they got there. The national police information service said the man surged toward officers with a knife and a metal bar. An officer opened fire and fatally wounded the man, police said.
Outlining details of the drama – in which no one else was hurt – Rouen prosecutor Frédéric Teillet said: "Police intervened at around 6.45am. There were reports of smoke’ coming out of the synagogue in Rue des Bons Enfants (Good Children Road). The man got on to a roof and managed to throw an improvised incendiary device like a Molotov cocktail inside. When police arrived, he jumped down, and confronted them, throwing the chisel. An officer retreated, and then discharged five shots – four of which hit the man."
A police source said: "Fire engines arrived with police and attempts to start a fire were brought under control. Police fired five times ‘after the man threw an armed bar at officers, and then tried to attack them with a knife." Two judicial investigations were immediately opened – one concerning the attack on the synagogue, and the other on the use of a police firearm to kill a civilian.
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The fire service stand by the synagogue which the knifeman had targeted (AFP via Getty Images)Mr Teillet said the man was in France illegally, and the subject of an ‘Obligation to Quit French territory’ order (OQFT), but had appealed it. He was identified by a "transport ticket with his name on", but had been unknown to police before today, said Mr Teillet.
A judicial enquiry was immediately opened into "arson with an anti-religious motivation" and "intentional violence against persons holding public office". Normandy regional councillor Jonas Haddad said: ‘Jews could have been burned if there had been a service.’
Several firefighters were on scene working to control the outbreak of the fire. An investigating source in Rouen said: "He was armed with a knife and an armed bar, and was trying to ignite the main city synagogue. When he threatened the officers, he was shot, and died from his wounds." Nobody else was injured in the terrifying incident, and the area around the synagogue was put into lockdown.
An infographic shows the location of the port city in relation to Paris (Anadolu via Getty Images)Frederic Desguerre, a regional police union official, told broadcaster BFM-TV that the man hurled the metal bar he was carrying at the officers and pulled out a long kitchen knife from one of his sleeves. "He moved toward them with a determined air, quite violent," he said. Desguerre, of the Unite police union, said the officer fired five shots after warning the man to stop moving.
Rouen city mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the man is thought to have climbed onto a trash container and thrown "a sort of Molotov cocktail" inside the synagogue, starting a fire and causing "significant damage." He said: "When the Jewish community is attacked, it's an attack on the national community, an attack on France, an attack on all French citizens," he said.
"It's a fright for the whole nation," he added. The president of the Jewish community of Rouen, Natacha Ben Haim, said that the flames destroyed part of the synagogue's furniture
Broadcaster BFM-TV said the man hurled the metal bar he was carrying at the officers and pulled out a long kitchen knife from his sleeve (AFP via Getty Images)On Tuesday, a Holocaust memorial in Paris was defaced with red hands in an act of vandalism described as ‘unspeakable’ by the city’s mayor. Red paint was scrawled on the Wall of the Righteous, as well as a number of others sites in the Marais district of the French capital.
And the disturbing incident comes amid a huge manhunt for a notorious career criminal, nicknamed "The Fly", after a prison van was attacked also in Normandy earlier this week. It happened at a toll booth near Val-de-Reuil, less than 20 miles from Rouen, where "The Fly" - Mohamed Amra - was born.
Four armed men ambushed the prison convoy which was transferring detainees. The masked attackers with machine guns blocked the truck as it took the detainee to Rouen, where the inmate was due to be presented to a judge. Footage shared widely online from inside a bus shows a black van on fire after it ploughed into the prison van. Masked gunmen can be seen aiming their weapons at the van in front of terrified onlookers.
An international arrest warrant has since been issued for Amra, 30, and Interpol's "Red Notice" states the fugitive is wanted for being part of an organised gang and murder, among other offences. Tensions and anger have grown in France over the Israel-Hamas war. Anti-Semitic acts have surged in the country, which has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe.
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