Hundreds evacuated after ‘military-grade’ weapon found near Paris synagogue

French authorities have launched a terrorism investigation following the discovery in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood

At least 300 people were evacuated from a Paris suburb after weapons were found in a vehicle near a synagogue.

The suspicious vehicle was discovered on Saturday evening in the busy suburb of Sarcelles, north of the capital, which is home to one of the country’s largest Jewish communities. Police established a security cordon around the area, which includes a cinema and several restaurants, and evacuated nearby premises.

AFP, citing police sources, said officers recovered an assault rifle and a handgun from the stolen vehicle. Bomb disposal experts found no explosives.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described the rifle as a “military-grade weapon,” adding that it had been found near a synagogue in the Val-d’Oise department.

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“We do not yet know the motives,” he said, adding that no arrests had been made.

The French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into suspected participation in a “terrorist criminal organization” and preparations for a violent attack.

France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish population, has recorded a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

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Nunez noted that police had foiled three plots targeting the Jewish community this year alone, including a knife attack on a gendarme beneath the Arc de Triomphe in February.

The country recorded 1,320 antisemitic acts last year, triple the number recorded three years earlier. Such incidents accounted for more than half of all anti-religious offenses, despite Jews making up less than 1% of the French population.

In August 2024, an explosion outside a synagogue in the southern city of La Grande-Motte injured a police officer after two vehicles and the building’s doors were set on fire. A suspect was later arrested following a large-scale manhunt.

Speaking on Sunday at the unveiling of a statue honoring Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer falsely convicted of treason in late 19th-century France, President Emmanuel Macron warned of the resurgence of the “demons of anti-Semitism.”