French police have arrested a man with links to a far-right party on suspicion of shooting two men outside a mosque in southwestern France.
Officials of the department of Pyrenees-Atlantiques say the man fired shots at the two men, both in their 70s, when they tried to stop him setting fire to the door of the mosque in Bayonne on Monday. The two were seriously injured.
Police arrested Claude Sinke, who is 84-years-old, at his home later in the day.
Sinke unsuccessfully ran in departmental elections in 2015 as a candidate for the far-right National Rally party, then known as the National Front.
Police are investigating his motives for the attack.
A total of 676 cases of hate speech and violence targeting Muslims were confirmed in France last year, according to a non-governmental organization which researches incidents such as hostility against Islam.
This marks an increase of more than 200 cases compared to the previous year.
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