Mosque at Bayonne
Claude Sinké, who ran for local office in 2015 under the banner of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party, poured gasoline on a Bayonne mosque's front door and set it on fire Monday, ABC News reported.
"The suspect threw an incendiary device at the mosque and then drove away," local police union official Patrice Peyruqueou told The Telegraph. "He was apparently trying to set fire to the mosque when two worshipers intervened and he shot them."
The shooting victims were two men, 74 and 78. Sinké also allegedly poured gasoline on the younger victim's car and set it ablaze as he sat inside, according to ABC.
Both are hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
"There was widespread panic at the mosque," a source familiar with the investigation told The Telegraph. "There were a lot of people inside at the time."
Sinké was arrested at 3:30 p.m. Monday at his home in Saint-Martin-de-Seignanx, just over nine miles north of Bayonne, ABC reported.
Grenades, an automatic pistol, several cartridges and a shotgun were discovered in his home.
"There are questions regarding his mental health and a psych evaluation of the suspect is underway," prosecutor Marc Mariee said at a Tuesday press conference, the network reported.
The octogenarian — who attended a military academy in his youth — had claimed that the April 15 fire that destroyed Paris' iconic Notre Dame Cathedral was carried out by Muslims, Mariee said.
In the immediate aftermath of the blaze, some websites spread similar rumors — indicating that the Notre Dame fire was an act of retaliation for the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shootings.
The arsonist carried out his attack as a debate raged within the French Senate about proposed legislation to forbid women from wearing hijabs when they chaperone their children's field trips, the network reported.
The bill was submitted days after a council member from Le Pen's party asked a mother on a school trip to a local assembly to remove her head covering, according to the report.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith slammed the proposed ban in a Tuesday statement, adding that the "outrageous remarks" from politicians and media personalities who "trivialize the hatred of Muslims" are to blame for the Bayonne mosque attack.
Le Pen's party condemned the attack, stating that Sinké had been removed from their ranks over "speech judged contrary to the spirit and the political line of the National Rally" and "had since not participated in any action of the movement," the network reported.
Comment: It's pretty much 'common knowledge' in France that radical Muslims torched Notre Dame. We're not saying we think that that was the case, but that it is what is commonly believed by people in France.