French anti-terrorism forces investigating the firebombing of a kosher grocery store in a Paris suburb last month carried out raids in cities nationwide on Saturday, and one suspect was killed in a shootout, officials said. At least seven people were arrested, according to a government statement.
Police union official Mohamed Douhane told the television network BFM that a suspect in the eastern city of Strasbourg opened fire when police arrived and they returned fire, killing him. He said no officers were badly hurt, thanks to bulletproof vests.
French authorities said the man was a member of an ultraconservative Salafi Muslim group. Seven people were arrested in simultaneous raids on anti-terror suspects in Paris and Nice.
Douhane said several cities, including in the south of France and in Paris, were involved in the raids.
A statement from President Francois Hollande confirmed seven arrests and said the state would continue to “protect the French against all terrorist threats.”
The firebombing of the grocery, in a Jewish neighborhood outside Paris, happened on the same day that a French satirical paper published crude caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, and while anti-Western protests were growing against an anti-Islam film.
One person was lightly injured and three others were treated for shock in the September 19 attack in Sarcelles, an area to the north of Paris known for clashes within the immigrant community.
The attack came after a summer of what residents described as growing anti-Semitic threats.