French terror probe after weapons found near Paris synagogue

French anti-terror prosecutors opened an investigation on Sunday following the discovery of military-grade weapons in a car parked near a synagogue in Sarcelles, a northern Paris suburb. Police retrieved an assault-style rifle and a handgun from the vehicle, prompting the evacuation of roughly 300 people from the busy neighbourhood.

No explosives were found inside the car and no arrests have been made, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who noted that a specific motive has not yet been established. Despite the absence of immediate suspects, prosecutors are pursuing severe charges, including forming a terrorist criminal organisation and acquiring weapons for a terrorist enterprise.

For the French economy, this latest security scare underscores a deteriorating domestic climate that forces continuous, expensive policing of public squares, commercial districts, and religious sites. The discovery of the arsenal near a cinema and restaurants in a densely populated area directly disrupts daily civic life and requires significant state resources to manage.

Nunez noted that French police have already foiled three planned attacks on the Jewish community this year alone. This includes a February knife assault on a gendarme beneath the Arc de Triomphe, an iconic landmark that sits at the heart of Paris's retail and tourism economy.

The broader statistical trend points to deepening social fractures. France recorded 1,320 antisemitic acts last year, a number that has tripled over three years. These incidents made up more than half of all anti-religious crimes in the country, a staggering disproportion given that Jewish people constitute less than 1% of the French population.

The escalating hostility has become a permanent strain on public order since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. Speaking on Sunday at the unveiling of a statue for Captain Alfred Dreyfus, President Emmanuel Macron criticised the rising "old demons" of antisemitism, noting they had darkened both France's past and its present.

Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer falsely accused of passing secrets to Germany and later cleared of all charges, was officially exonerated 120 years ago. His new statue stands outside the Palace of Justice, a deliberate commemorative act meant to confront the institutional bias that once fractured the French republic.