The search for the fugitive perpetrator continues after the explosion outside a synagogue in southern France, acting Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Saturday-
Nearly 200 police officers and gendarmes have been deployed.
“We can assume that we narrowly escaped an outright tragedy,” Attal said.
Initial findings indicate that the perpetrator was very determined. If the synagogue had been full at the time of the crime and people had come out, there would probably have been deaths, he said.
He called the act scandalous and pointed to the increasing number of anti-Semitic attacks in France.
He made his comments after two doors of the synagogue were set on fire that morning, along with two vehicles parked in front of the building.
A gas cylinder exploded in one of the vehicles, slightly injuring a police officer. The five people who were in the synagogue at the time were unharmed.
The French Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office is investigating suspicions of attempted murder with a terrorist motive, vandalism using dangerous means and the creation of a terrorist organisation.
“Initial investigations show that the perpetrator was carrying a Palestinian flag and a weapon,” the Public Prosecution Service said.
