French police on Saturday arrested a man suspected to have carried out an attack on a synagogue in the southern tourist town of La Grand-Motte, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
“The alleged perpetrator of the arson attack on the synagogue has been arrested,” Darmanin said on X early Sunday morning.
The man, a 33-year-old Algerian, was arrested at 11:30 p.m. in Nîmes, about 50 kilometers north of the location of the synagogue attack, according to local media reports.
The suspect tried to resist arrest by opening fire at police officers. He was injured and had to be hospitalized, but his life was not in danger, according to the reports. Two other people also were arrested.
CCTV cameras caught the main suspect in the early hours of Saturday morning setting fire to several of the synagogue’s doors and two nearby cars. One of the cars contained a gas container that exploded, injuring a police officer.
French President Emmanuel Macron Saturday afternoon called the incident a “terrorist act,” saying that everything was being done to bring the perpetrator to justice.
Anti-terrorism investigators were put in charge of the probe and coordinated the operation that resulted in the arrest of the Algerian man.
Darmanin and French Prime Minister Garbiel Attal went to La Grand-Motte on Saturday, where they visited the synagogue and met with members of the Jewish community. “The anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue shocks, revolts and scandalizes all Republicans in our country,” Attal said on X.
Attacks on Jewish institutions in France have increased since the Hamas militant group’s raid on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent retaliatory assault on Gaza.
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