A 15-year-old teenager was arrested on Thursday with a knife near the Strasbourg synagogue, police sources reported this Friday. The young Frenchman of Chechen origin was detained by a CRS agent after rubbing the blade of a knife against the metal barriers surrounding the Great Synagogue of Peace, before hiding the weapon in his sleeve.
Arrested by the Police, he claimed to have found the knife, with a 12 centimeter long blade, in his pocket by chance, and that he did not know that the building was a synagogue.
A search of his mobile phone revealed a Snapchat message proclaiming “ATT I’m going to go to your school I’m going to light the kalache I’m going to be the most famous Chechen,” as well as an Internet search for the price of a Kalashnikov.
The teenager explained that he wanted to acquire this weapon because he planned to set up a drug trafficking network. The investigation has passed into the hands of the Judicial Police.