Two vehicles parked outdoors a synagogue blew themselves up in a French metropolis on Saturday in what prosecutors described as an act of terrorism.
The vehicles exploded outdoors the Ben Yacov Synagogue in La Grand Motte, a resort city on the south coast of France. The the doorways of the synagogue have been additionally set on hearth, prosecutors mentioned in an announcement.
5 individuals, together with the rabbi, have been contained in the synagogue on the time of the assault, round 8 a.m., as worshipers have been making their strategy to the synagogue.
Nobody was killed, however one police officer responding to the explosions was injured when a fuel cylinder in one of many automobiles exploded, in keeping with an announcement from the prosecutor’s workplace’s counterterrorism unit.
Prosecutors are treating the assault as an tried homicide by a terrorist group with the intent to trigger hurt and destroy property, the counter-terrorism unit mentioned in an announcement. As of Saturday afternoon, no arrests have been made within the case.
The assault is more likely to heighten fears of rising anti-Semitism in France, which has the most important Jewish inhabitants in Western Europe. Assaults on Jews in France have elevated in recent times, and the federal government has mentioned so more than 360 recorded anti-Semitic episodes within the first three months of 2024. The Israel-Hamas conflict additional elevated the strain in society increasingly divided in faith and beliefs.
President Emmanuel Macron promised that the perpetrators could be tracked down and that Jewish locations of worship in France could be protected.
“The combat towards anti-Semitism is a continuing battle,” Mr Macron mentioned, including that it was a combat for a “united nation”.
Officers within the municipality of Hérault, which incorporates La Grande Motte, mentioned town could be vigilant in defending buildings related to its Jewish group.
The municipality additionally canceled an indication deliberate for Saturday in close by Montpellier by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motion, which strives to mobilizing financial and political stress on Israel over its therapy of the Palestinians.
Over the past French election, the nation’s leftists, particularly Jean-Luc Melenchon, the founding father of France Unbowed, have been accused of inciting anti-Semitism.
After the explosions on Saturday, Mr. Melenchon described the attack as an “insupportable crime” and referred to as on France to uphold the rules of secularism.
