OREANDA-NEWS. Actu17 website reports that policemen detained an elderly man who opened fire in front of a mosque and threw a makeshift bomb at the building. The accident occurred in the city of Bayonne (the department of Pyrenees-Atlantiques, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France).

Two people aged 84 and 87 years were injured.

After throwing a makeshift explosive device at the mosque, the attacker tried to escape, but was detained in front of his own house. After that, a gas cylinder was found in his car.

In the publication of Actu17 it is mentioned that the malefactor a retired military man. Motives of the action of a criminal are unknown.

The Parisien newspaper writes that the shooter turned out to be the 84 year old man who earlier was a candidate from the extreme right-wing National Front party (in 2018 it was renamed the National Rally). According to the publication, Claude S. in 2015 participated in the local elections from the National Front and gained 17.45 % in the first round.

The LCI channel, citing sources in the police, reported that the attacker is 84 years old and is connected with a “fascist movement.”

According to France Bleu radio station, several hand grenades were found in the detainee’s house. It is also reported that the criminal suffers from cancer.

Marine Le Pen, the President of the National Rally political party, dissociated from the attacker. “The attack against the mosque in Bayonne is an unheard-of act that is completely contrary to the values ​​that our movement carries. These crimes should be treated with the utmost severity,” she wrote on her Twitter page.