A man who set fire to a synagogue in Rouen, France, has been shot dead after approaching responding police officers armed with a knife and an iron bar. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said the incident occurred on Friday morning, and that the unnamed suspect “was not French, he was of Algerian origin.”
Darmanin implied the attack was terroristic, describing it as an “antisemitic act against a place that is sacred to the republic” and an “unacceptable, despicable” attack on Jews.
Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the synagogue was heavily damaged after the Algerian “climbed up the synagogue and threw an object, a sort of Molotov cocktail, into the main praying room.”
Jewish community leader Natacha Ben Haim described the incident as “catastrophic,” adding she was personally “very upset.”
France has the largest Muslim population in Europe as well as the largest Jewish population in Europe, measured in sheer numbers. It has faced significant internal tension since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) in 2023, scheduled to take place in Paris, were scrapped amid fears of a terror attack.
Islamists have also targeted Christians in the Normandy region where Rouen is located. In 2016, Islamic State jihadists seized several hostages at the Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray during a morning Mass. Father Jacques Hamel, 85, was later killed by having his throat slit at the church altar.
