French authorities arrest suspect in synagogue attack

MARSEILLE, France – A suspect who has an arrest record for minor crimes but was not on the radar of French or foreign antiterrorism authorities has been detained in connection with Saturday morning’s attack on a synagogue in southern France, which is being investigated as a terrorist act, French authorities said Sunday.

The arrest occurred in Nimes, about 24 miles from the scene of the attack, the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the resort town of La Grande-Motte, France’s antiterrorism prosecutor’s office said early Sunday in a statement. Two vehicles exploded outside the synagogue, and the doors to the building were also set on fire, the statement said.

Five people, including the rabbi, were inside the synagogue at the time. No one was killed, but one police officer responding to the explosions was hurt when a gas bottle near one of the vehicles also exploded, the statement said.

The suspect, who was caught on video surveillance, hid with a hatchet after setting the fire, Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said in a television interview. He added that the suspect appeared to be waiting for people to leave the synagogue before police arrived.

National antiterrorism prosecutors are investigating the episode as a terrorism-motivated assassination attempt, among other charges, Darmanin and the prosecutor’s statement said.

The suspect and law enforcement traded gunfire during the arrest, which occurred about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, and the suspect’s face was wounded, according to the prosecutor’s office. Two other people were also taken into custody, whom the prosecutor’s office referred to as the suspect’s “entourage,” without providing additional details.

Darmanin said police officers responded to the scene in less than two minutes because they had just finished a patrol near the synagogue, which, like many Jewish institutions around France, is under heightened protection because of persistent fears of antisemitic attacks.

“A tragedy was probably avoided” by the quick police response, Darmanin said.

Darmanin said in the interview, on France 2 television, that the suspect arrived in France in 2016, and fathered a child born three years later in the country, which allowed the suspect to obtain a temporary residency permit.

Darmanin said the suspect had a record for illegal drug consumption and driving without insurance, but was not on the radar of French or foreign antiterrorism services. French intelligence agencies did not believe he had acted on behalf of a larger organization, Darmanin added.

But Darmanin added that the police had not yet been able to question the suspect because he was still hospitalized after being wounded.

In the first three months of 2024, France recorded more than 360 antisemitic episodes. That is an average of four a day – and an increase of 300% over the same period in 2023, the government said.

“To attack a French person because he is Jewish is to attack all French people,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on the social media platform X before the arrest, adding that nearly 200 law enforcement officers had been mobilized to find the suspect.

The attack has sharpened anxiety and reopened painful memories for Jews across France, which has the largest Jewish population in Western Europe and a history of deadly antisemitic attacks and messaging.

The war in the Gaza Strip has only heightened tensions and debates about antisemitism in France, where antisemitism and support for Israel emerged as prominent themes in the recent national elections.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.