French police say a man shot and killed outside a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen threatened officers with a knife and a metal bar.

Police were alerted that smoke was rising from the synagogue and came face to face with the man when they got there, national police said.

An officer opened fire and killed the man, police said.

Police said they had not yet identified the man.

Interior minister Gerald Darmanin posted on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, that the armed individual was “neutralised” on Friday morning and thanked officers for their “reactivity and their courage”.

He said the armed individual was “clearly wanting to set fire to the city’s synagogue”.

“In Rouen, national police officers neutralised early this morning an armed individual clearly wanting to set fire to the city’s synagogue. I congratulate them for their reactivity and their courage,” he said.

The ministry confirmed that the suspect was shot and killed.

Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said the man is thought to have climbed onto a rubbish container and thrown “a sort of Molotov cocktail” inside the synagogue, starting a fire and causing “significant damage”.

“When the Jewish community is attacked, it’s an attack on the national community, an attack on France, an attack on all French citizens,” he said.

“It’s a fright for the whole nation,” he added.

Frederic Desguerre, a regional police union official, told broadcaster BFM-TV that the man hurled the metal bar he was carrying at officers and pulled out a long kitchen knife from one of his sleeves.

“He moved toward them with a determined air, quite violent,” he said.

Mr Desguerre, of the Unite police union, said the officer fired five shots after warning the man to stop moving.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said this month that the sharp spike in antisemitic acts in France that followed the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel has continued into this year.

Authorities registered 366 antisemitic acts in the first three months of 2024, a 300% increase over the same period last year, Mr Attal said. More than 1,200 antisemitic acts were reported in the last three months of 2023 — which was three times more than in the whole of 2022, he said.

“We are witnessing an explosion of hatred,” he said.

France has the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe.