Gunshots were heard near the Ghriba Synagogue on the island of Djerba, Tunisia. At least two police officers and two visitors died, including one of French nationality, indicates the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Two worshipers who were taking part in a Jewish pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, on the Tunisian island of Djerba, died on Tuesday evening in an attack perpetrated by a gendarme, who also killed two colleagues before being shot, announced the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior.
This synagogue, the oldest in Africa, had already been targeted in 2002 by a suicide truck bomb attack that killed 21 people.
The attack took place in two stages, the ministry said in a statement. The gendarme who fired the shots first shot and killed one of his colleagues and seized his ammunition. Then he went to the outskirts of the synagogue where he opened fire.
Two “visitors” to the synagogue were killed by gunfire from the assailant before he was shot, and four others were injured and evacuated to a hospital, the ministry added. On the side of the police, another gendarme was also killed and five others injured.
The Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs later clarified “that the two victims among the visitors are of Tunisian (30 years old) and French (42 years old) nationalities.” But this source did not provide the identity of those killed and injured.
Crisis unit opened by the French Embassy in Tunisia
“A crisis unit has been opened by the French embassy in Tunisia,” reads the embassy’s official Twitter account. The emergency number is: +216.31.31.51.10
The French embassy in Tunisia calls on its nationals present on the island to follow “the instructions of the police and (to stay) in your place of residence.”
The attack came as hundreds of worshipers took part in the annual Jewish Ghriba pilgrimage which was coming to an end Tuesday night at the synagogue. Security forces “surrounded the synagogue and secured everyone inside and around it,” according to the Interior Ministry.
“Investigations are continuing to elucidate the motives for this cowardly attack,” added the ministry, refraining at this stage from mentioning a terrorist attack.
Tunisian media initially reported shooting near the Ghriba synagogue after a police officer was killed in unclear circumstances. The shots were heard from the synagogue, causing panic among the hundreds of worshipers taking part in the annual Jewish pilgrimage, according to media reports.
Organizers say more than 5,000 Jewish pilgrims, mostly from abroad, took part this year in the pilgrimage to the Ghriba, Africa’s oldest synagogue, which resumed last year after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
