French police kill man who set fire to Rouen synagogue

France, like many countries across Europe, has seen a huge spike in antisemitic acts since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israeli military response in Gaza. The synagogue's rabbi, Chmouel Lubecki, said his wife was there at the time of the attack.

French police shot dead an armed man who set fire to a synagogue in the northwestern city of Rouen on Friday and threatened police with a knife, the local prosecutor said. The synagogue suffered extensive damage from the fire, but no one else was harmed, said Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, adding that the Normandy town was "battered and shocked".

"An armed man somehow climbed up the synagogue and threw an object, a sort of Molotov cocktail, into the main praying room," he told reporters. France, like many countries across Europe, has seen a huge spike in antisemitic acts since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israeli military response in Gaza.

The synagogue's rabbi, Chmouel Lubecki, said his wife was there at the time of the attack. "We had a great fright," he told BFM TV. His wife "heard gunshots and screams ... and then she saw smoke coming from the synagogue, so she immediately went down, she helped the firefighters get in the synagogue."

"We expected it (attacks), unfortunately," he said, because of a rise in antisemitism. "We had this fear inside of us, but when it actually happens, it's still shocking." Natacha Ben Haim, president of Normandy's Jewish community said the walls, and a lot of the furniture, had been blackened by the fire and smoke. "It's catastrophic. Yes, I'm upset, I'm very upset," she told reporters.

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"Arriving on site (at the synagogue), firefighters and police spotted a man on the roof of the synagogue, he was brandishing an iron bar in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other," prosecutor Frederic Teillet told reporters, adding that there was smoke coming out of the synagogue's windows. A police officer shot the attacker as he ran towards him, threatening him with the knife he held in his hand, and did not follow orders to stop, Teillet said.

The officer seemed to have acted according to normal procedure in such a situation, he said. The attacker's identity was being verified. The only ID he had on him was a local public transport card.

Several French media said the attacker was a foreigner who had been in the process of appealing an official decision that he should leave the country. Le Figaro newspaper cited unspecified sources as saying he was a 29-year-old Algerian. The synagogue was later blocked off by police officers as evidence was collected. Mayor Mayer-Rossignol said it was surrounded by a series of security cameras.

France has recorded 366 antisemitic acts in the first three months of 2024, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said this month, three times as many as in the first quarter of last year. "No one can deny this antisemitic wave. No one can deny the fact that it is estimated that French Jews represent 1% of the French population, but that more than 60% of anti-religious acts are antisemitic acts," he said.

Rabbi Lubecki urged the community to carry on as usual. "Tonight is Shabbat (Sabbath). It is important to light the Shabbat candles to show that we are not afraid and that we continue to practice our Judaism despite the circumstances," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)