“The alleged perpetrator of the arson attack on the synagogue has been arrested. Thanks to the police, and mainly the RAID, who intervened with great professionalism despite the gunfire,” wrote Gérald Darmanin, the resigning Minister of the Interior, on the social network X on Saturday evening.
Three other people, including two from the entourage of the alleged assailant, were also arrested and taken into custody, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) said on the night of Saturday to Sunday. During his arrest by the police, including those from the RAID, on Saturday evening around 11:30 p.m. in Nîmes, the main suspect “opened fire on the intervention column, which returned fire,” reported the Pnat, specifying that he “was injured in the face.”
An “anti-Semitic attack”
The suspect, a man who acted with his face uncovered and whose actions were captured by video surveillance cameras, attacked a synagogue in La Grande-Motte, a seaside resort that is crowded in the summer and close to Montpellier, early Saturday, August 24, triggering several fires but without causing any casualties. Only a municipal police officer responding to these fires was slightly injured by the blast of a gas cylinder explosion.
The suspect was wearing a Palestinian flag on his belt, from which protruded what appeared to be the butt of a handgun, according to an image taken from video surveillance and authenticated by AFP. He managed to escape on foot. The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office quickly took up the case and the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, accompanied by Gérald Darmanin, went to the scene late Saturday afternoon.
The Matignon resident had denounced an “anti-Semitic attack”, assuring that nearly 200 police officers and gendarmes were sent on the trail of the alleged assailant, whose escape ultimately lasted only a little over 12 hours.