France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin described the incident as “clearly criminal.”
A police officer was injured when a car exploded outside the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the French town of La Grande-Motte on Saturday morning, police confirmed. Shortly before the blast, two vehicles were set on fire, one reportedly containing a gas canister.
“An attempted arson, clearly criminal, affected the synagogue in La Grande Motte this morning,” France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that authorities are working to locate the perpetrator.
The mayor of La Grande-Motte, Stephane Rossignol, said surveillance cameras captured an individual setting fire to vehicles in front of the synagogue, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.
A police source told the media the suspected perpetrator was seen leaving the area and was apparently wearing a traditional keffiyeh scarf and carrying a Palestinian flag. He remains at large.
Two doors of the religious building were damaged by the blaze, police told Le Figaro, adding that a team of bomb disposal experts has been deployed to the site.
Darmanin and French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are expected to visit the scene of the arson attack later in the day.
The wounded municipal police officer was transported to the emergency room of Montpellier University Hospital, according to French media, with his injuries reportedly not being life-threatening.
French authorities have increased security around synagogues, reporting a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents in France since 2023, following the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in October which prompted the Jewish state to launch a large-scale military campaign in Gaza.
In May, a man was fatally shot by French police after attempting to set fire to a synagogue in the city of Rouen.
Earlier in March, a 62-year-old man wearing traditional Jewish headwear was assaulted in Paris as he was leaving a synagogue. The attacker reportedly shouted ethnic slurs as he tackled the victim to the ground before fleeing the scene on foot.