France, shots against mosque: 80-year-old former National Front candidate arrested

During the shooting there was also a "small explosion", perhaps caused by a gasoline canister burned not far from the place of Islamic worship.According to the reconstruction around 3.15 pm, the eighty-year-old opened fire by shooting four times against the religious building in which there were several faithful. The two injured elders were rushed to the hospital. One was shot in the neck and the other in the arm. Before fleeing, the former soldier also set fire to a vehicle.

Claude Sinke, who in his youth attended the preparatory military school of Aix-en-Provence, in 2015 was a candidate in this district for the Front national, the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen, obtaining in the first round on 17, 45% of the votes. Last Friday he sent a very bright letter to the local prosecutor, announcing that he wanted to file a complaint against Macron. A copy of the letter was also sent by post to the local newspaper Sud Ouest, which this evening published only the header of the message, given the content "discriminatory and xenophobic". In recent times, he had been reported for "homophobic and xenophobic" sentences and purposes. The former mayor of his country, Lionel Causse, told the local newspaper: "I know him well. Lately we didn't hear him talk too much, I thought he had moved. In the past I had banned him from entering the town because he came to continuation and verbally attacked the staff ".

Emmanuel Macron expressed a "firm condemnation" of the attack: "The Republic will never tolerate hatred. Everything will be done to punish the perpetrators and protect our fellow Muslims," ​​the president said. Marine Le Pen spoke of an "unspeakable" and "absolutely contrary" attack on the values ​​of his party.

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