No Terror Motive In Brest Mosque Shooting: French Prosecutors

French investigators have ruled out any terror motive in a shooting incident that wounded an imam in the northwestern city of Brest, saying the terrorist, who was found dead after an apparent suicide, was "unstable"

Brest, France, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Jun, 2019 ) :French investigators have ruled out any terror motive in a shooting incident that wounded an imam in the northwestern city of Brest, saying the terrorist, who was found dead after an apparent suicide, was "unstable".

The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon when a man opened fire outside a mosque in the city, injuring the local imam and another person.

"From the information gathered so far, we cannot consider this as a terror attack," Brest prosecutor Jean-Philippe Recappe told AFP.

Imam Rachid El Jay was hit by four bullets while a worshipper with him sustained two bullet wounds, but neither had life-threatening injuries.

A police source said the suspected shooter was found dead in an area near Brest airport, with a fatal gunshot wound to the head after an apparent suicide.

Aged 21, the gunman came from the Normandy region of northern France and was not known to police nor the courts, Recappe said, indicating he had a weapons permit.

A source close to the case described him as "unbalanced" but was not known to belong to a far-right movement.

Before the shooting, he had sent a letter to the imam of the northern city of Lille outlining his reasons for targeting El Jay, saying he had been ordered to do so by "masked men in a black van" who threatened to kill his family.

The imam had sent on the two-letter to his counterpart in Brest but did not realise the significance of it until after the incident, when he informed the police.

Recappe said the letter did not resemble the claims in recent Islamist attacks.

The violence had prompted Interior Minister Christophe Castaner to order an increase in security measures around places of worship across France.