Police shoot dead armed attacker trying to set fire to synagogue in Rouen

Police shot dead an armed attacker trying to set fire to a synagogue in the northern French city of Rouen on Friday, according to a spokesman for the country’s interior ministry.

Police have shot dead an armed attacker who was trying to set fire to a synagogue in the northern French city of Rouen, according to authorities. A male suspect entered the building early Friday morning and threw what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail, the local mayor said. The man climbed on top of a trash bin and got to the second floor of the synagogue, then threw the projectile into the building causing a fire, Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol told journalists at the scene. “He was [quickly] brought down by security forces before trying to wrestle with them. He then tried to assault security forces with a knife, a long knife,” the mayor said, adding it was then when security forces opened fired and killed the suspect. No one was hurt during the attempted attack, according to Mayer-Rossignol. Police arrived very quickly, partially because they saw the suspect on security cameras, he said. The local prosecutor’s office has launched two inquiries, one into the arson and the other into the police firing of arms, Mayer-Rossignol said.