A French police forensic officer gathers evidence after officers earlier shot dead an armed man who tried to set fire to the city’s synagogue in Rouen, France, on May 17, 2024. | Photo credit: Reuters
French police have shot dead a man armed with a knife and a metal bar suspected of setting fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen early May 17, authorities said.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on social media site X that the armed individual had been “neutralized.”
“In Rouen, early this morning, national police officers neutralized an armed person who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue. I congratulate them on their responsiveness and their courage,” he said.
According to the national police, officers were alerted early Friday morning that smoke was rising from the synagogue and found themselves face to face with the man when they arrived. According to the National Police Information Service, the man charged at officers with a knife and a metal bar. An officer opened fire and fatally wounded the man, police said.
Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the man is believed to have climbed onto a waste container and thrown “some kind of Molotov cocktail” into the synagogue, causing a fire and causing “significant damage.”
“When the Jewish community is attacked, it is an attack on the national community, an attack on France, an attack on all French citizens,” he said.
“It is a shock to the entire nation,” he added.
