French police kill man suspected to set fire to synagogue in Rouen
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Raven Ruma
- . May 18, 2024
- . Update: May 18, 2024 12:47 am
French police on Friday shot dead an armed man who was trying to set fire to a synagogue in the northern city of Rouen.
Police responded at 6:45am (0445 GMT) to reports of a ‘fire near the synagogue’, a police source said.
‘The national police in Rouen neutralised an armed person early this morning who clearly wanted to set fire to a synagogue in the city.’ This is what Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on X
A source close to the case told AFP that the man ‘was armed with a knife and an iron bar and approached the police, who opened fire. The person died.’
‘It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and traumatised,’ Rouen mayor Nicolas Meyer-Rosignol wrote on X. He emphasised that there were no other victims other than the attacker.
Rouen prosecutors said two separate investigations have been opened, one into the synagogue fire and the other into the circumstances of the death of the person killed by the police.
Such an investigation by the General Inspectorate of the French police is automatically opened whenever someone is killed by the police.
The Rouen prosecutor said the man threatened a policeman with a knife, and the policeman used his service weapon.
The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.
Yonatan Arvey, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), wrote on X: ‘The attempt to burn down a synagogue is an attempt to terrorise all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on Jews in our country. Fighting anti-Semitism means defending the Republic.’
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