Anti-Semitic attack in La Grande-Motte: suspect arrested, investigation, police officer injured… what we know about the terrorist attack

On Saturday, August 24, the police and gendarmerie forces were mobilized to find the fleeing suspect. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

An individual burst into the Beth-Yaacov synagogue in La Grande-Motte on Saturday, August 24, shortly after 8 a.m. and set fire to two cars, a pergola and two entrance doors.

“Shortly after 8 o'clock, I smelled something like burning tires. Then I heard a loud explosion. I immediately went to my window and saw a plume of black smoke from the synagogue side as well as flames coming from the H2O building, just across the street.”

What this resident of Avenue Jean-Bene in La Grande-Motte could not imagine was that an individual had just entered the parking lot of the Beth-Yaacov synagogue, located on Allée André-Malraux, with criminal intentions. And this, while five people, including the rabbi, were in apartments upstairs.

Plastic bottles filled with gasoline

Armed with plastic bottles filled with gasoline, the man set fire to two parked vehicles. And to a pergola under which a barbecue and gas bottles were stored. Before setting fire to two entrance doors. That of the place of worship. And that of a meeting room, right next door. If the fire did not spread to the interior of the religious building, the two doors were completely charred. In his escape, the arsonist set fire to a car parked under the open parking lot of the H20 medical and business center, just opposite. A backfire ? The story does not say. The vehicle was completely burned. While the facade of the building was soiled by thick blackish smoke.

An explosion rang out

Alerted at 8:21 a.m. by worried local residents, the gendarmes from the local brigade, located nearby, invaded the scene less than five minutes later, accompanied by several municipal police officers. Unable to extinguish the flames, the Hérault firefighters were notified. In the meantime, an inspection of the site was ordered. It was at that moment that an explosion rang out and threw a municipal police officer to the ground under the effect of the blast. “He was not injured by shrapnel, it was only the blast and the noise that destabilized him”, assured a prefectural source. For the sake of his conscience, he was evacuated to the Lapeyronie hospital center for check-ups after which he was released early in the afternoon.

One can legitimately wonder how events would have turned out if the perpetrator had appeared half an hour later, in the middle of a religious service that gathers every Saturday, at 9am and not 8:30am like the rest of the week, nearly fifty worshippers…

The theory of a voluntary and anti-Semitic criminal act having been quickly confirmed, the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office was notified. A large security perimeter was immediately set up around the synagogue while numerous law enforcement officers converged on the seaside resort. In addition to the personnel of the local gendarmerie brigades and the criminal identification experts, the GIGN, with negotiators, a special anti-terrorist service of the national police, the judicial police as well as a special intervention detachment were deployed on site.

Suspect arrested

The use of the synagogue's video surveillance cameras made it possible, if not to formally identify the suspect, at least to clearly capture his face. In the images, he can be seen with a red and white keffiyeh on his head and a Palestinian flag around his waist. A gun butt can also be seen at groin level. A police source also mentioned the presence of a small axe. The investigation will have to confirm this.

On Saturday evening, the man was actively sought and was eventually arrested in a building in the Pissevin district of Nîmes. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced at a press conference held on site that 200 police officers and gendarmes were mobilized to track down the suspect.

The man was located on the top floor of a building in the Pissevin district of Nîmes. It was the police officers from the National Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI-Nat) and the elite RAID service who managed to neutralize the suspect this Saturday evening.

The police officers had to use their weapons. The individual was hit several times by bullets while he was in the tower in the Nîmes district. He was taken into care by emergency services, "but his life is not in danger".