REPORTAGE
At nightfall, as the police filter access to the mosque of Bayonne, the stupor is still read on the faces. Monday afternoon, the building was targeted by an 84-year-old man who first tried to burn the door of the mosque, before attacking two worshipers by shooting at them. A few hours after the fact, faithful inhabitants and inhabitants of the district were collected all the evening.
"It's very hard for the community, I'm sure he had the will to kill," said Abdelatif Boutatif, president of the local Muslim association. "It's an isolated act, but I'm really shocked," said the former rugby player at the microphone of Europe 1. An act that was not committed "by a madman" according to Omar, who knows the two seriously injured victims by bullets of 74 and 78 years by this former FN candidate. "It's a terrorist act!" He says. "We are here to pray, not for anything else". Beside him, Ashraf holds a speech that borrows the same lexical field: "I think he had prepared his attack".
"Everyone's religion, but it's done with respect"
While neighbors of this district repeat to who wants to hear it that there was never any problem related to the mosque, Patchi came to deposit a bouquet of flowers in front of the entrance of the white building: "One n ' is not really close to the Muslim community, we came to deposit some flowers because it seems normal to us, each one his religion, but that it is done in the respect, "he explains.
Pending the end of the judicial findings that led to the closure of the mosque, the Bayonne town hall has made available to the faithful a room for them to meet and pray. As for the suspect, he was promptly arrested after the fact and admitted to custody to be the author of the shots.