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  • World - Africa
  • Updated: May 10, 2023

Tunisia: Police Officer Shoots Four Dead At Synagogue Pilgrimage

Tunisia: Police Officer Shoots Four Dead At Synagogue Pilgri

A Tunisian police officer shot dead four people at Africa's oldest synagogue in an attack on Tuesday that sparked panic during an annual Jewish pilgrimage on the island of Djerba.

According to the interior ministry, he shot dead two guests, including a French citizen, and two fellow officers before being shot himself.

The attack, the first on foreign visitors to Tunisia since 2015 and the first on the pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue since a suicide vehicle explosion killed 21 people in 2002, injured four more visitors and five police officers.

The Tunisian foreign ministry identified the two victims as a 30-year-old Tunisian and a 42-year-old French national. It did not reveal their identities.

During a gunfight with a colleague who opened fire on them, Tunisian police surround the Ghriba synagogue.

Before opening fire on the synagogue, the perpetrator had killed a colleague and grabbed his ammunition, causing terror among the hundreds of visitors.

"Investigations are continuing to shed light on the motives for this cowardly aggression," the interior ministry said, declining to call the shooting a terrorist incident.

The French government "condemns this heinous act in the strongest terms," said Anne-Claire Legendre, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry.

Tunisian police have cordoned off the area around the Ghriba synagogue on the island of Djerba following a deadly gun attack that disrupted the annual visit to Africa's oldest synagogue.

Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the US State Department, strongly condemned the shooting rampage.

"The United States deplores the attack in Tunisia, which coincided with the annual Jewish pilgrimage that draws faithful from around the world to the El Ghriba Synagogue," he stated.

"We express our condolences to the Tunisian people and applaud Tunisian security forces' prompt action."

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