Police kill man trying to burn down synagogue in France

French police fatally shot an armed man who was trying to set fire to a synagogue in the northern city of Rouen, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday (May 17).

"National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city's synagogue," Darmanin wrote on X.

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According to asource, the man was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who then fired. The individual died, as reported by AFP.

France has the largest Jewish community of a country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe's largest Muslim community.

Police responded at 6:45 am (0445 GMT) to reports of "fire near the synagogue", a police source said.

"It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock," Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He said there were no victims other than the attacker.

Notably, two separate investigations have been launched, one into the synagogue fire and another into the circumstances surrounding the death of the man shot by the police, according to Rouen prosecutors.

An investigation by France's police inspectorate general is standard procedure whenever a person is killed by the police.

The man had threatened a police officer with a knife, prompting the officer to use his service weapon, the Rouen prosecutor stated.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

"Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic," Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) wrote on X.

Meanwhile the authorities are also grappling with the worst violence in decades in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

(With inputs from agencies)