French President Emmanuel Macron called the Saturday attack on a synagogue in the south of France “a terrorist act” that a unified France would fight.
“The fight against anti-Semitism is an ongoing battle, the fight of a united nation,” Macron wrote on X. He added that everything would be done to find those responsible.
Following the explosion outside a synagogue in La Grande-Motte, a city on the Mediterranean coast near Montpellier, the anti-terrorism public prosecutor’s office said it is taking over the investigation and will look into attempted homicide with a terrorism connection and destruction with dangerous means, as well as terrorist association.
By evening, the search for the fugitive perpetrator was still under way, according to acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Some 200 police officers and gendarmes have been deployed.
“We can assume that we have narrowly escaped an absolute tragedy,” said Attal.
Initial findings suggest that the perpetrator was very determined. If the synagogue had been full at the time of the crime and people had come outside, there would likely have been fatalities, he said.
He described the act as outrageous and pointed to the increasing number of anti-Semitic attacks in France.
At the time, five people were inside the synagogue, including the rabbi. According to the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, they remained unharmed.
Two cars were initially set on fire in front of the synagogue in La Grande-Motte, a Mediterranean coastal city near Montpellier.
A gas cylinder exploded in one of the vehicles, according to a spokesman for the gendarmerie, a branch of the armed forces responsible for internal security in some areas. A police officer was injured. No one in the building was injured.
Two doors of the synagogue were also set on fire. It is unclear whether this happened before or after the explosion.
“Initial investigations suggest that the perpetrator was carrying a Palestinian flag and a weapon,” the prosecutor’s office stated.
Acting French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin ordered an immediate increase in the presence of security forces outside Jewish places of worship. He wrote on X of an “apparently criminal attempted arson,” and expressed his full support for the Jewish community.
Attal, writing earlier on X, spoke of an anti-Semitic act: “Once again, our Jewish fellow citizens have been targeted.”
Saturday is the Jewish sabbath and traditionally when people attend religious services.
Yonathan Arfi, chairman of the umbrella organization of Jewish organizations in France, CRIF, wrote that the explosion took place at a time when worshippers were expected to arrive at the synagogue.
“It was not just an attack on a place of worship, it’s an attempt to kill Jews,” he wrote.
Attal and Darmanin are expected to arrive at the scene of the attack this afternoon.
