Two cars set on fire outside a synagogue in southern France on Saturday caused an explosion in which a police officer was injured, authorities said.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called the incident at the Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort of La Motte “an obviously criminal act”.

He said, “All means are being deployed to find the perpetrator”. Darmanin said police protection of synagogues and Jewish schools and shops would be strengthened across France.

William Maury, of the police union Alliance Police Nationale, told BFM TV that the injured police officer’s life was not in danger.

Police confirmed the attempted arson but declined to give more details.

Darmanin and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal were to travel to the site of the explosion on Saturday.

Police were hunting for a suspect and the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office was put in charge of the investigation, Attal said.

“This is an antisemitic attack. Once more, our Jewish compatriots are targeted,” Attal said on X, adding: “We won’t give up. In the face of anti-Semitism, in the face of violence, we will never allow ourselves to be intimidated.”

The explosion was likely caused by a gas canister hidden in one of the cars, police said.

The town near Montpellier has about 8,500 permanent residents but the population is multiplied during the summer tourism season.

The explosion comes amid a heightened state of alert in France and other European countries because of the Gaza conflict.

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Darmanin said this month that the government had counted 887 anti-Semitic acts in France in the first half of 2024, nearly three times as many as in the same period in 2023.

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) called the explosion “an attempt to kill Jews”.

The use of a gas canister “in a car at a time when worshippers are expected to arrive at the synagogue is not simply a criminal act”, CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told AFP.

“This shows an intention to kill. “