French police were on Saturday hunting a man suspected of killing a Muslim worshipper inside a mosque in the south of the country while filming the murder on a mobile phone and shouting insults at Islam.
The worshipper was stabbed to death on Friday morning in the village of La Grand-Combe in the Gard region of southern France. His killer was still at large on Saturday, regional prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini told AFP.
The motive for the killing was unclear but security camera footage showed the suspected murderer insulting “Allah”, the Arabic term for God, a source close to the investigation told AFP.
The alleged perpetrator sent the video he had filmed with his phone, showing the victim writhing in agony, to another person, who then shared it on a social media platform before deleting it.
According to another source, who also asked not to be named, the suspected perpetrator, while not apprehended, has been identified as a French citizen of Bosnian origin.
“The individual is being actively sought. This is a matter that is being taken very seriously,” said the prosecutor Grini.
“All possibilities were being considered, including that of an act with an Islamophobic dimension,” he said, confirming that French anti-terror prosecutors office were considering whether to take over the case.
The victim and the attacker were alone inside the mosque at the time of the incident.
After initially praying alongside the man, the attacker then stabbed the victim up to 50 times before fleeing the scene.
The body of the victim was only discovered later in the morning when other worshippers arrived at the mosque for Friday prayers.
According to prosecutor Grini, the victim, aged between 23 and 24 years old, was a regular worshipper at the mosque. By contrast, the killer had never been seen there before.
According to several people AFP spoke to at the scene on Friday, the victim was a young man who arrived from Mali a few years ago and was “very well-known” in the village, where he was highly regarded.
