Suspect arrested in French synagogue ‘terror attack’

Armed police in southern France have arrested a man suspected of attempted arson at a synagogue while people were inside.

The man was injured during an exchange of fire with officers in Nimes, according to France’s acting interior minister Gerald Darmanin.

The city is around 55 miles (88km) northeast of the Beth Yaacov synagogue which had been targeted in the resort of La Grande-Motte, near Montpellier.

Fires were started at two of the entrances on Saturday morning, and two vehicles in its car park were set alight.

French news group BFMTV claims the suspect is 33 years old and originally from Algeria.

Media reports suggest he was injured during an exchange of gunfire with police on the top floor of a tower block, although he is not in a life-threatening condition.

President Emmanuel Macron described the incident as “an act of terror”, adding on X that “the fight against antisemitism is a daily fight”.

Five people who were in the synagogue complex at the time of the attack, including a rabbi, were unharmed.

A police officer was injured after a propane gas tank in one of the vehicles detonated.

Prosecutors said a male suspect who was spotted in surveillance videos fleeing the site was carrying a Palestinian flag and a weapon.

They are treating the attack – which happened in La Grande-Motte on the French Mediterranean coast – as an attempted assassination linked to a terrorist group.

Prime minister Gabriel Attal said 200 police officers had been hunting the suspect.

La Grande-Motte mayor Stephan Rossignol said investigators were reviewing the city’s surveillance videos and a lone suspect was spotted at the site of the attack.

He told broadcaster France Info: “The individual in question did not manage to get inside the synagogue, even though that was clearly his objective.”

Mr Attal added the attack was “an act of antisemitism”, and said: “Once again our Jewish fellow citizens are being targeted.

“Faced with antisemitism, faced with violence, we will never let ourselves be intimidated.”

Acting interior minister Gerald Darmanin previously announced he would be ordering extra police reinforcements to protect synagogues, Jewish schools and shops across the country.

“I want to assure our Jewish fellow citizens of my full support”.