PARIS: French police shot dead an armed man who set fire to a synagogue in the northwestern city of Rouen early on Friday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and local officials said.
Police, who were called to the site because of smoke coming out of the building, shot the man when he threw an iron bar at them and threatened them with a knife as he left the building, a Rouen city official said.
The fire had been brought under control, the official said.
The synagogue suffered damage, including to its furniture, but no one was harmed, Rouen mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said.
"An armed man somehow climbed up the synagogue and threw an object, a sort of molotov cocktail, into the main praying room," Mayer-Rossignol said.
The attacker's identity and motive were still unclear.
France hosts the Olympic Summer Games in just over two months and recently raised its alert status to the highest level against a complex geopolitical backdrop in the Middle East and Europe's eastern flank. — REUTERS