In Sarcelles, a knife attack against three young people worries the Jewish community

Three young Jews wearing the kippah were attacked by a man with a knife on Monday in Sarcelles.

The aggression worries the Jewish community, which asks to know the exact circumstances of the facts and calls for security measures.

Monday, the last day of the Jewish Passover feast, around 8:30 p.m., three young people come out of the great synagogue of Sarcelles and walk on Boulevard Albert-Camus, in the heart of Little Jerusalem.

All three wear the kippah.

It was then that a woman, from her balcony on the first floor, alerted them by shouting: "Be careful, he has a knife!"

The young people, in their twenties, turn around to find a drunken man, two meters away from them, who points a long knife in their direction.

They immediately flee and escape him.

He would have launched: "They stole my job"

Other members of the community will then run and subdue the man with the knife, not without difficulty, before handing him over to the police crew who have just arrived.

The suspect, who is said to be around 35 years old, of Pakistani origin, was taken into custody at the Sarcelles police station.

According to certain testimonies collected, he would have launched, at the time of the facts: “They stole my job.

"The Pontoise prosecutor's office also notes about the accused" a context of advanced alcoholism ".

At the end of his police custody, the man was referred to the Pontoise public prosecutor's office on Wednesday, and the latter opened a judicial investigation for "threat with a weapon".

Indicted by the examining magistrate, he was placed under judicial supervision in the evening and was released.

The Pontoise public prosecutor's office, which for its part requested his placement in pre-trial detention, appealed against the decision of the judge of freedoms.

He also specifies that there was nothing to confirm the anti-Semitic nature of the facts.

This aggravating circumstance was not ultimately retained.

A 30 cm knife with a serrated blade

"What was this man, who is homeless, doing in the Jewish quarter of Sarcelles on a party night?"

It all sounds worrying to me.

He came from behind the young people.

He couldn't help but see that they were wearing the kippah.

I ask for clarification ”, confides René Taïeb, president of the Jewish communities of Val-d'Oise, according to whom this act“ remains likely to have an anti-Semitic character ”.

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It evokes the presence of a knife used to cut plasterboard, about thirty centimeters long, with a toothed blade.

“I also call for increased security.

"

He also confides that the suspect would be subject to an obligation to leave French territory taken by the prefect for several years.

“It is not applied.

Is this normal?

", he asks.

The suspect was reportedly seen on Thursday near the synagogue

Moïse Kalhoun, who heads the community of Sarcelles, specifies that the concern is all the greater since the suspect was seen near the great synagogue this Thursday morning, just a few hours after his release.

“The risk is still there,” he believes.

I am very worried and it is a feeling more than shared.

He said he was convinced that the respondent wanted to attack the young people after noticing that they were wearing the kippah.

“I am not obsessed with anti-Semitism, but this seems obvious to me.

"

He remembers the attack that occurred in September 2020 in front of the Sarcelles police station, a few hours after the attack in front of the former premises of Charlie Hebdo, in Paris.

A machete attack that had seriously injured a man who came to file a complaint.

According to the latest information gathered, there would be no link between this attack and the facts of Monday evening, committed near the synagogue.

In addition, the investigation of the attack in front of the police station is the subject of a judicial investigation underway in Pontoise, and has not been entrusted to the anti-terrorism.