A man was arrested after deliberately crashing into the Al-Badr mosque in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), Le Figaro reported on Monday February 28. It was a Muslim man known to the police who was attending the place of worship. He was taken into police custody, but this was quickly lifted to make way for a compulsory admission to a psychiatric hospital. There were no injuries and it was not assumed that there had been a terrorist attack.
The crime occurred late on Saturday morning, February 26. The man crashed his vehicle into the emergency exit door of the mosque. According to a source familiar with the case quoted by Le Figaro, “the door shattered”. Damage was also found inside the mosque, according to the prosecutor of the Republic of Meaux. The thesis of an accident was quickly dismissed, as the perpetrator had tried to leave several times before fleeing on foot, Le Figaro reports.
The man, identified as “coming from the neighbourhood” and as a regular mosque-goer, had been convicted of domestic violence in November 2021, but had benefited from a reduced sentence. He was arrested the same evening in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines). His mental state was quickly deemed incompatible with imprisonment. The mosque’s leaders expressed their “sadness and shock” at the act on Facebook and called for “calm” and ” level-headedness” in this situation.