French Prime Minister’s Paris apartment targeted by burglars

The Paris apartment owned by French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been targeted by burglars, according to reports, but his office insist no sensitive documents were stolen.

Published: 27 April 2017 17:01 CEST

French Prime Minister's Paris apartment targeted by burglars

Photo: AFP

Cazeneuve's apartment was targeted at the beginning of the week, a source in his entourage told AFP news agency.

But the aide insisted the evidence suggests those who carried out the crime had no idea whose apartment they were in.

“Everything indicates that those who broke in did not know the flat belonged to the prime minister,” the source told AFP, confirming a report in Closer magazine.

The source also insisted “there were no documents relating to his role as Prime Minister in the flat at the time.”

Cazeneuve was formerly France's so-called 'top cop' during his time as interior minister in which he was tasked with fighting crime.

He then became Prime Minster when Manuel Valls stepped down to launch his failed campaign to be president.

A few months ago he told police he did not want officers permanently stationed outside his apartment given the strain on police resources caused by the ongoing terror threat.

However, since the burglary, security measures have been stepped up.

The fact Cazeneuve's Paris flat was burgled might come as a surprise to his security staff but probably not to anyone living in Paris where burglaries are a regular occurrence.

Statistics published in 2014 revealed there were 40 break-ins a day in the French capital, a steep rise on the previous year.

The interior ministry linked the hike in burglaries to organised crime gangs from eastern Europe.

The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.