Two cars were set alight today after an explosion next to a synagogue in France, in what it described as a “clear criminal attack” on the Jewish place of worship.
Firefighters, police and the gender ministry arrived at the scene of the synagogue on Saturday morning at around 8:40 a.m. local time.
Emergency services discovered two doors and two cars on fire. A police officer was thrown to the ground by the explosion.
The police officer was seriously injured in the incident in the town of La Grande-Motte, a seaside resort in the south, close to Montpellier.
“The alarm went off around 8:30 a.m.,” said a source who conducted the investigation. “There was at least one violent explosion and flames were hitting the door of the synagogue.
‘There was clearly a gas cylinder in one of the two cars parked directly in front of the synagogue, and that was the cause of the explosion.
Two cars were set on fire today after an explosion next to a synagogue in France, a “clear criminal attack” on the Jewish place of worship
‘A police officer who was trying to secure the area was seriously injured and taken to hospital.’
According to The MirrorCCTV footage captured someone fleeing the scene before the inferno began. A gas cylinder was later discovered in one of the vehicles that had been disabled.
Firefighters arrived on the scene and by 10am the fire was under control, with no further injuries.
In recent months, tensions have risen in France and anti-Semitic incidents have been reported due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.
France has the largest Jewish community in Europe, numbering approximately 500,000 people.
Gerald Darmanin of the French Interior Ministry called the incident a “clear criminal attack.”
He wrote on Twitter X: ‘I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens and the community of my full support and say that at the request of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, all means are being mobilized to find the perpetrator.’
Firefighters, police and the gender ministry arrived at the scene of the synagogue on Saturday morning at around 8:40 a.m. local time
Hussein Bourgi, a Socialist senator in the Hérault department, where La Grande-Motte is located, said: “I would like to express my full solidarity with the Jewish community of La Grande-Motte and with its president, Sabine Atlan.”
In May, an Algerian immigrant living illegally in France was shot dead by police after throwing a Molotov cocktail through the window of a synagogue.
The 29-year-old, who was armed with a knife, was shot four times by an officer who fired his service weapon outside the building in Rouen, Normandy.
A judicial investigation has been opened into ‘arson with anti-religious motives’ and ‘deliberate violence against persons holding public office’. This investigation is still ongoing.
This came shortly after a Holocaust memorial in Paris was defaced with red hands, apparently in reference to the rising number of civilian casualties in Gaza and the West Bank.