French authorities have launched a terror investigation following the discovery in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood
About 300 people were evacuated from a Paris suburb after weapons were found in a car near a synagogue.
The suspicious vehicle was discovered on Saturday evening in the busy neighborhood of Sarcelles, north of the capital, which is home to one of the country’s largest Jewish communities. Police set up a cordon around the area, which includes several cinemas and restaurants, and evacuated nearby buildings.
AFP, citing police sources, said officers recovered an assault rifle and a rifle from the stolen vehicle. Bomb disposal experts found no explosives.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described the gun as a “military-grade weapon,” adding that it had been found near a synagogue in the department of Val-d’Oise.
“We don’t know the motive yet” he said and added that no one was arrested.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into allegations of involvement in a “criminal terrorist organization” and preparations for a brutal attack.
France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish population, has recorded a sharp rise in hate crimes since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Nunez noted that police had thwarted three plots targeting the Jewish community this year alone, including a knife attack on a gendarme under the Arc de Triomphe in February.
The country recorded 1,320 acts of hate last year, three times the number recorded three years earlier. Such incidents accounted for more than half of all anti-religious crimes, despite Jews making up less than 1% of the French population.
In August 2024, an explosion outside a synagogue in the southern town of La Grande-Motte injured a police officer after two cars and the building’s doors were set on fire. The suspect was later arrested following a manhunt.
Speaking on Sunday at the unveiling of a statue honoring Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer convicted of treason in late 19th century France, President Emmanuel Macron warned of a resurgence of militarism. “the demon of anti-Semitism.”
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