A police officer was injured when a burning car exploded in the parking lot of a synagogue in the southern French town of La Grande-Motte on Saturday, authorities said, calling the incident a terrorist attack and saying security at Jewish institutions would be stepped up. Police have launched a search for the suspect and the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said. “This is an anti-Semitic attack. Once again, our Jewish compatriots are in the crosshairs,” Attal said on social media site X. “We will not give up. In the face of anti-Semitism, in the face of violence, we will never allow ourselves to be intimidated.”
France, like other countries in Europe, has seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents following Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza. “We are doing everything we can to find the person who carried out this terrorist act and to protect places of worship,” said President Emmanuel Macron.
Two cars, one of which contained at least one gas cylinder, were set on fire in the synagogue’s parking lot at around 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), local media reported. The Parisian, Franceinfo and other media said a suspect had been seen on security cameras shortly before the attack with a Palestinian flag tied around his waist.
Several media outlets reported that the wounded policeman’s life was not in danger. “The explosion of a gas cylinder in a car in front of the Grande Motte synagogue at the time when the faithful were expected to arrive: this is not just an attack on a place of worship, it is an attempt to kill Jews,” Yonathan Arfi, head of CRIF, an organisation of French Jewish groups, told X.
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