Firebombing of kosher store outside Paris injures four
Motives of two men, dressed in black, who tossed Molotov cocktail into Sarcelles supermarket are still unclear
Raphael Ahren is a former diplomatic correspondent at The Times of Israel.
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Four people were wounded Wednesday in a Parisian suburb after a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a kosher supermarket, according to French media reports.
Around lunchtime, two men dressed in black threw an explosive device into the “Naouri” kosher supermarket, which is situated in a commercial center in Sarcelles, according to eyewitnesses. Located to the north of Paris, Sarcelles is an area known for clashes within the immigrant community.
The president of the Council of French Jews, Richard Prasquier, confirmed that one person was “lightly injured,” Liberation newspaper reported. French news website JSSNews.com reported that “at least one person was badly wounded.”
“According to several sources, two grenades were thrown into the supermarket, one of which exploded,” according to the site.
The motives of the alleged perpetrators remained unclear.
“Many people come to stock up for the holiday of Yom Kippur, which falls on next Wednesday,” Moshe Cohen-Sabban, the president of the local Jewish community told Le Figaro newspaper. While there were no specific intercultural problems in Sarcelles, there was “much anti-Semitism” on a national level, he added.
Located to the north of Paris, Sarcelles is home to a significant Jewish community but also to a large group of immigrants from Arab countries, which are known to occasionally clash.
Local police are planning to hold a press conference later this afternoon.
Jonathan-Simon Sellem contributed to this report.
