Tuesday, December 5, around 6.30 p.m., while the vicar of Saint-Paul church, located in the Europe district of Colmar, was about to say the service, an individual unknown to the parishioners threatened him and then beaten him up.
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“
I was warned by the minister's office.
At the start, we were all panicked: we thought that this could be an anti-religious aggression linked to an Islamist radicalization
, ”
Colmar mayor Eric Straumann
reports to
Le Figaro
.
According to the chosen one, the man, who had settled near the altar, refused to respond to the young priest's request to come and threatened him on several occasions.
While the vicar was trying to calm the spirits, the stranger hit the priest on the head before punching him, until the latter fell to the ground.
The faithful intervened immediately and, when the police arrived on the scene, the attacker "
asked the police to give him their weapon to kill the priest
", reports the mayor.
Psychiatric disorders
In police custody, it turned out that the man, aged 20 and born in Colmar, had serious psychiatric disorders.
At the station, he notably "
attacked the police
" and "
damaged his cell by knocking on the door
".
He was subsequently hospitalized automatically at the psychiatric center of Rouffach, in the Haut-Rhin.
Known by the police for acts of "
outrages and rebellions
", the aggressor had already been the subject of several convictions in the past, said Eric Straumann, specifying that "
his psychiatric difficulties were already known to the authorities
".
The mayor of Colmar also specifies that, "
in the behavior of this man, nothing suggests that this aggression is linked to religious radicalization or racist facts
".
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the dean of Colmar Didier Karon, also responsible for the community of the parish of Saint-Paul, expressed his wish that "
everything will return to normal as of next week
".
“
We live in a neighborhood that is not easy, we have good relations with our Muslim neighbors, and we don't want that to change.
We remain in a positive dynamic
", he added, specifying that he will now go to celebrate mass alongside the victim,"
so that he is not alone
".
The vicar, a student in Strasbourg, has minor injuries and was not hospitalized, but was one day assigned incapacity for work.
A complaint was filed and an investigation was opened.
