French authorities detain suspect in synagogue blast that injured officer

• Two cars parked at the synagogue complex caught fire shortly after 8 a.m. on Saturday.
• Firefighters found additional fires at two entrances to the synagogue.
• Five people, including the rabbi, were unharmed during the attack.

French police have arrested a suspect in connection with an arson attack on a synagogue in a southwestern Mediterranean town that injured a police officer, the country’s acting interior minister announced on Sunday.

Two cars parked at the Beth Yaacov synagogue complex in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte, near Montpellier, caught fire just after 8 a.m. on Saturday. Firefighters found additional fires at two entrances to the synagogue. A police officer who approached the scene sustained injuries when a propane gas tank placed near the burning vehicles exploded.

The report added that five people, including the rabbi, who were present in the synagogue complex during the attack remained unharmed.

“The alleged perpetrator of the arson attack on the synagogue has been arrested,” Gerald Darmanin, the acting interior minister, said in a post on X. He visited the site on Saturday afternoon along with acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and met with local officials and the synagogue staff.

Darmanin praised the “professional conduct” of the police forces and their elite intervention unit, noting their performance “despite the gunfire” during the operation. French prosecutors reported that officers arrested the man in the southern city of Nimes shortly before midnight Saturday.

“He opened fire on the police intervention unit, which returned fire, injuring (the suspect) in the face,” the National Antiterrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Sunday. Two other people linked to the suspect were also taken into custody, it added.

Prosecutors are investigating the attack as an attempted assassination linked to a terrorist group, destruction of property with dangerous means, and a crime planned with the intent to cause harm. After the attack on Saturday, Darmanin ordered police reinforcements to protect Jewish places of worship, acknowledging that the incident was “clearly a criminal act.”

“I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens of my full support and say that at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, all means are being mobilized to find the perpetrator,” Darmanin posted on X.

Darmanin ordered the deployment of additional police officers at Jewish places of worship nationwide following a rise in antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October. Mayor Stéphan Rossignol of La Grande Motte stated that investigators are reviewing the city’s surveillance videos and have identified a lone suspect at the scene of the attack.

“The individual in question did not manage to get inside the synagogue, even though that was his objective,” Rossignol said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.

Prosecutors said surveillance videos showed a male suspect fleeing the site carrying a Palestinian flag and a weapon. They spoke anonymously due to ongoing investigation regulations. President Emmanuel Macron labeled the synagogue attack a “terrorist act” and assured that authorities are doing everything possible to find the perpetrator.

“The fight against anti-Semitism is a constant battle,” Macron said on X.

Acting Prime Minister Attal called the synagogue attack an “anti-Semitic attack,” describing it as a “shocking and appalling” act of violence.

“Once again, French Jews have been targeted and attacked because of their beliefs,” Attal said after meetings in La Grande Motte. “We are outraged and repulsed.”

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