On Sunday night, eight people, including a girl suffered minor injuries in Avignon of Southeast France after rebels opened fire in front of a mosque. The prosecutors’ office said this incident was not a terrorist activity.
According to reports, two men got out of the car at around 10:30 P.M., near the mosque and opened fire. The officials said they used a shotgun and a machine gun. None of the injuries were life threatening.
The prosecutor, ruling out terrorism, said, “From what we know this evening, the mosque was not targeted. The fact that it happened in the street of the religious establishment was unconnected with it.”
The witness of the incident said apart from two men firing, there were two accomplices in the car with hoods on. The case has been taken over by the criminal investigation department.
This incident came just days after a man tried to ram his vehicle into worshipers outside the Creteil mosque, in Paris. A 43 year old Armenian driver suffering from Schizophrenia, hit the barriers and pillars outside the mosque and crashed into a traffic island. There were no injuries in that rouge incident.
The investigators said the suspect had made ‘confused remarks in relation’ to the jihadist attacks on France since 2015, that resulted in the death of 239 people. Paris police commissioner has issued orders for vigilance in protecting Muslim places of worship.
