The Bayonne mosque shooting was an attack carried out on 28 October 2019.[1] An 84-year-old man attacked a mosque in the southwestern French town of Bayonne. He seriously injured two people by gunfire.[1] The police arrested the suspect.[1] He is said to have taken part in the 2015 regional elections as a candidate for the far-rightFront National (today the Rassemblement National).[1]
According to the French police, the man is said to have tried to lay a kind of incendiary in front of the mosque at around 15:20 local time.[2][1] He was disturbed by two men and then fired several shots at them.[1] The two men were seriously injured. He then set fire to a car and fled.[3][1] Police found a gas canister and a handgun in the car of the suspect.
Police later arrested the 84-year-old suspect, who was locally known as Claude Sinké at his home in Saint-Martin-de-Seignanx. He is also accused of trying to burn down the mosque.[4]
Sinké died in prison on 26 February 2020, aged 84.[5]
See also
Bærum mosque shooting - a similar shooting in Norway, in which one person was wounded