French police on Friday shot dead an armed man who was trying to set fire to a synagogue in the northern city of Rouen. In Sweden, the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm was sealed off after a shooting early in the morning, according to local media reports.
In France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, “National police in Rouen neutralized early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue.”
Police responded at 6:45 a.m. (0445 GMT) to reports of “fire near the synagogue,” a police source said.
A source close to the case told AFP that the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar. He approached the police, who fired. The individual died.”
“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.
He made clear there were no victims other than the attacker.
The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.
The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.
Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it was currently assessing whether it will take up the case.
In Stockholm, police press officer Per Fahlström told newspaper Expressen that a police patrol heard loud bangs, suspected to be from a firearm. The area was cordoned off shortly after 2 a.m., and at 6:30 a.m. the police wrote that their investigations indicated there had been a shooting in the area.
Police at the Israeli Embassy were searching for traces of gunfire.
Fahlström did not comment on whether the embassy was the target of the suspected shooting.
A preliminary investigation into a serious weapons crime was launched. Fahlström told media that several people had been detained, without elaborating further.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the incident was being probed by Swedish authorities and there were no further details available.
There have been increased tensions all over Europe due to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with mass protests against the Jewish state and a massive rise in antisemitic incidents.