French police shoot man dead for setting fire to synagogue

The Rouen Synagogue which the man had set ablaze. Pic/X

French police shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who is suspected of having set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen early on Friday, the latest apparent act in a storm of antisemitism roiling France.

Officers were alerted early Friday that smoke was rising from the synagogue and came face to face with the man when they got there, the national police information service said.

It said the man surged toward officers with a knife and a metal bar. An officer opened fire and fatally wounded the man, police said. Police said they had not yet identified the man. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on the social media site X that the armed individual was "clearly wanting to set fire to the city's synagogue." He congratulated officers for "their reactivity and their courage." Tensions and anger have grown in France over the Israel-Hamas war. Antisemitic acts have surged in the country, which has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe. Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the man is thought to have climbed onto a trash container and thrown "a sort of Molotov cocktail" inside the synagogue, starting a fire.

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