WORLD
Police arrest 84-year-old man over gun and arson attack at French mosque
Paris, October 29, AZERTAC
An 84-year-old man who once stood as a far-right candidate in local elections has been arrested on suspicion of carrying out a shooting and arson attack that injured two people outside a mosque in south-west France, according to The Guardian.
Two men aged 74 and 78 are in a serious but stable condition in hospital after the incident in Bayonne on Monday afternoon. Police said a man tried to set fire to the door of the mosque and that when he was interrupted, he opened fire. The man then set fire to a car before fleeing, police said. The suspect was arrested close to his home in the Landes, 10 miles away. The two injured men are believed to have been worshippers at the mosque.
A police source told Reuters that the suspect was a candidate in local elections in the Landes in 2015 for Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, Front National, which has since been renamed National Rally. He took 18% of the vote in the first round. Nicolas Bay of the National Rally confirmed to Cnews TV channel that the suspect had been a candidate, but he had left the party saying its ideas didn’t suit him.