Police say officers were alerted early on Friday morning that smoke was rising from the synagogue, and came face to face with the man when they got there.
The local mayor said the man is thought to have climbed onto a bin and thrown "a sort of Molotov cocktail" inside the building, starting a fire.Anti-Semitic acts have surged over recent months in France, which is home to western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim populations.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on early Friday local time the armed individual had been "neutralised". Police said the man surged toward the officers with a knife and a metal bar, before one officer opened fire and killed him. "When the Jewish community is attacked, it's an attack on the national community, an attack on France, an attack on all French citizens," he said.Rouen's chief rabbi, Chmouel Lubecki, told BFMTV the Jewish community would stand strong in the face of the incident.
Gerald Darmanin Normandy Synagogue
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