Police cut down knife-wielding man who set synagogue on fire

French police shot dead an armed man who set fire to a synagogue in the northwestern city of Rouen on Friday and threatened police with a knife, the local prosecutor said.
The synagogue suffered extensive damage from the fire, but no one else was harmed, said Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, adding that the Normandy town was “battered and shocked”.
“An armed man somehow climbed up the synagogue and threw an object, a sort of Molotov cocktail, into the main praying room,” he told reporters.
France, like many countries across Europe, has seen a huge spike in antisemitic acts since Hamas’ Oct. 7 deadly attack on Israel and Israel’s invasion of Gaza in response.
The synagogue’s rabbi, Chmouel Lubecki, said his wife was there at the time of the attack.
“We had a great fright,” he said. His wife “heard gunshots and screams … and then she saw smoke coming from the synagogue, so she immediately went down, she helped the firefighters get in the synagogue.”
“We expected it (attacks), unfortunately,” he said, because of a rise in antisemitism. “We had this fear inside of us, but when it actually happens, it’s still shocking.”
Natacha Ben Haim, president of Normandy’s Jewish community said the walls, and a lot of the furniture, had been blackened by the fire and smoke. “It’s catastrophic. Yes, I’m upset, I’m very upset,” she told reporters.
France 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’s eastern flank.
“Arriving on site (at the synagogue), firefighters and police spotted a man on the roof of the synagogue, he was brandishing an iron bar in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other,” prosecutor Frederic Teillet told reporters, adding that there was smoke coming out of the synagogue’s windows.
A police officer shot the attacker as he ran towards him, threatening him with the knife he held in his hand, and did not follow orders to stop, Teillet said, adding that the officer seemed to have acted according to normal procedure in such situation.
The attacker’s identity was still being verified. The only ID he had on him was a local public transport card.
The synagogue was later blocked off by police officers as others collected evidence. Mayor Mayer-Rossignol said it was surrounded by a series of security cameras.
Rabbi Lubecki urged the community to carry on as usual.
“Tonight is Shabbat. It is important to light the Shabbat candles to show that we are not afraid and that we continue to practice our Judaism despite the circumstances,” he said.