Man With Knife Tries To Enter Jewish Store In France, Is Overpowered By Guards

A man with a knife tried to enter a kosher grocery store opposite a Jewish school in Marseille on Friday morning but was overpowered by the school security guards before he could enter.

Security guards at the Yavne Jewish high school spotted the man, who was wearing a towel on his head, exiting his car holding a knife. They followed him and wrestled him to the ground when he tried entering the kosher grocery store.

Police were called and detained the man, who is in his 60s and has a prior criminal record.

Interpellation #Marseille #cacher pic.twitter.com/KlDorGSCe5

— Pierre Sautarel (@FrDesouche) March 5, 2021

The children in the school were locked inside for a short period while the police searched for explosives.

Police officers cordon off the area after a man visibly brandished a knife outside a Jewish school and a kosher market in Marseille, southern France, Friday, March 5, 2021. Police detained a man Friday who was wielding a knife outside a Jewish school and kosher market, and increased surveillance of Jewish sites in the city while they investigate his motives, according to local authorities. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

A witness said it was a rapid police operation, and described the area as a gathering place for people in the local Jewish community.

“When the students get out of school they buy sandwiches here, buy meals for the Sabbath, and a lot of parents from the school get their coffee and croissants there and drink it outside. … He saw this gathering of people,” the witness, who asked only to be identified by his first name, Laurent, told The AP.

France saw deadly attacks targeting a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and a Paris kosher market in 2015.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)