French Interior Ministry said on Friday that the police have shot and killed an armed suspect who appeared to be planning a synagogue attack. The Interior Ministry said the armed suspect appeared to be planning to "set fire" to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen early.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted on the social media site X that the armed individual was “neutralised”.
“In Rouen, national police officers neutralized early this morning an armed individual clearly wanting to set fire to the city's synagogue. I congratulate them for their reactivity and their courage,” he said.
The ministry confirmed that the suspect was shot and killed, without divulging more details.
This incident comes amid escalating tensions and anger in France over the Israel-Hamas war, with Antisemitic acts surging in the country, which has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe.
The FSB said that a so-called "Islamic State" (IS) cell, based in Kaluga, situated southwest of Moscow, had planned on attacking Jewish worshippers.
The "terrorists" had "put up armed resistance" while being arrested by the Russian FSB officers, the security service was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying in a statement, adding that as a result they were "neautralised by return fire".
"Firearms, ammunition, as well as components for the manufacture of an improvised explosive device were found and seized," the FSB had said.
Security services footage circulated by Russian Defence Ministry-run Zvezda news showed FSB personnel searching a house in which the bodies of two men could be seen along with weapons, ammunition and knives.
