FRENCH police shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who they suspected of having set fire to a synagogue in Rouen today, the latest apparent act in a storm of anti-semitism roiling France amid Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Fire services were alerted early today morning to a blaze at the synagogue.

Police officers discovered the man on the roof of the building, clutching the metal bar in one hand and the kitchen knife in the other, and smoke rising from the synagogue’s windows, Rouen prosecutor Frederic Teillet said at a brief news conference.