Synagogue suffered significant damage, including to its furniture, but no one was harmed
\n PARIS
\nFrench police shot dead an armed man who set fire to a synagogue in the northwestern city of Rouen early on Friday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and local officials said.
\nPolice, who were called to the site because of smoke coming out of the building, shot the man when he threw an iron bar at them and threatened them with a knife as he left the synagogue, a Rouen city official said.
\nThe fire had been brought under control, the official said.
\nThe synagogue suffered significant damage, including to its furniture, but no one was harmed, Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said, adding that the Normandy town was \u201cbattered and shocked\u201d.
\n\u201cAn armed man somehow climbed up the synagogue and threw an object, a sort of molotov cocktail, into the main praying room,\u201d Mayer-Rossignol told reporters.
\nThe attacker\u2019s identity and motive were still unclear.
\nFrance, like many countries across Europe, has seen a huge spike in antisemitic acts since Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 deadly attack on Israel and Israel\u2019s invasion of Gaza in response.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s once again an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country,\u201d Yonathan Arfi, president of the CRIF Jewish advocacy group, said on X.
\nFrance hosts the Olympic Summer Games in just over two months and recently raised its alert status to the highest level against a complex geopolitical backdrop in the Middle East and Europe\u2019s eastern flank.
\nThe synagogue was surrounded by a series of security cameras, Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said.
\n\u201cTonight is Shabbat and it is important to light the candles to show that we\u2019re not afraid, that we continue to practice Judaism despite the circumstances,\u201d Rouen\u2019s Rabbi Chmouel Lubecki, told BFM TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Synagogue suffered significant damage, including to its furniture, but no one was harmed PARIS French police shot dead an armed man who set fire to a synagogue in the northwestern city of Rouen early on Friday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and local officials said. Police, who were called to the site because of smoke coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-407732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n