Synagogue Attack in France: What We Know

Less than 16 hours after an attack targeting a synagogue in the south of France, the alleged attacker, a 33-year-old Algerian, was arrested fifty kilometers from the scene on Saturday evening. An update on the investigation has been handed over to the Anti-Terrorism Prosecution.

• Read more: France: Synagogue Attacked, Three Suspects Arrested, Macron Condemns Anti-Semitism

• Read more: Threats were sent to hundreds of synagogues

facts

Between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Saturday (6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. GMT) two vehicles were set on fire in the grounds of the Beth Yaakov synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande-Motte (South) near Montpellier. The National Prosecutor’s Office explains in a press release about counter-terrorism. Two additional fire outbreaks were noted at two access doors to the building.

“At 8:21 a.m. several fires were reported to the gendarmerie by local residents,” a source in the province representing the state in the department told AFP, stressing that the building also houses the synagogue’s clergy. “Those who have no connection with the Jewish community”.

According to this source, the fires targeted two cars parked inside the building, a pergola that serves as a community space with a barbecue, as well as the doors of the synagogue and a meeting room. A fifth fire outbreak was reported in a car parked outside the grounds of the religious building.

AFP

At the same time as the fire, the explosion of the gas cylinder was heard. After thinking she was in one of the burned vehicles, investigators from the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) eventually determined she was next to these vehicles.

According to prefectural sources, two large and two small gas cylinders were located under the pergola near the barbecue.

According to the city’s mayor, Stéphane Rossignol, one of the explosives was opened by an attacker in the synagogue’s courtyard. The other three were empty.

target

The Beth Yaakov Adlan Synagogue, located in a one-story building in the residential area of ​​La Grande-Motte, was opened 12 years ago by the efforts of two brothers who returned from Algeria.

At the time of the incident, five people, including the rabbi, were in the building, but no one was injured. Only one city police officer sustained minor injuries.

“According to the first elements we have, we can consider that we have escaped a total tragedy,” resigned Prime Minister Gabriel Attal commented on Saturday afternoon.

This Saturday, Shabbat (a weekly day of rest in Judaism), the service was scheduled for 9 a.m., according to the synagogue’s website. “There was a real desire to kill the victims,” ​​Perla Danon, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Organizations in Occitania, told AFP: “If it was winter it would have been office hours.”

AFP

suspect

Footage from the synagogue’s surveillance cameras showed a man, apparently relatively young, running from the compound after the fire and explosion. With his face covered, he wears a red keffiyeh on his head, a Palestinian flag on his waist, a blue polo shirt and pants, and holds a plastic bottle of mineral water with a yellow liquid in each hand.

From the belt, the rear of the pistol appears to be protruding. According to a source close to the file, the 9mm could be.

Less than 16 hours after the start of his run, the wanted man was finally arrested at 11:35 p.m. (9:35 p.m. GMT) on Saturday, during an intervention led by elite police officers in particular, the resigned interior minister, Gerald Dormanin, in X.

AFP

According to Pnat, the arrest took place in Nîmes, fifty kilometers to the north. From the same source, the arrested person opened fire on the intervention column, who returned fire and sustained a facial injury.

From a source close to the case, the man was a 33-year-old Algerian in a routine situation. From the same source, he was arrested in an impoverished area of ​​the drug-trafficking city of Nîmes.

Investigation

At 11 am on Saturday Pnat took the facts, launched an investigation into the terrorist criminal association with the aim of preparing the crimes of assassination attempts related to the terrorist organization, destruction in dangerous ways related to the terrorist organization and harming the population. .

The counter-terrorism sub-directorate of the Judicial Police, the Regional Directorate of the Southern National Police and the General Directorate of Internal Security are conducting the investigation.

Apart from the announcement of the arrest, no further information has yet been provided by Pnat regarding the attacker’s possible criminal record and his possible motivations. Likewise, no demands have been made so far.

Several searches were carried out during the day on Saturday before the suspect was arrested and three others, including two members of the suspected attacker’s entourage, were arrested and taken into police custody.