The fire, which broke out on the night of Sunday to Monday, caused the collapse of the bell tower and the vault of the religious building. The man arrested was “known for similar acts of destruction by fire.”
165 years of history almost went up in smoke. On the night of Sunday to Monday, a fire damaged the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais). A man was taken into custody on Monday evening as part of the investigation, the public prosecutor announced on Tuesday, September 3.
The survey highlighted “traces of break-in” in the church, where a stained glass window was broken, Saint-Omer prosecutor Mehdi Benbouzid told AFP. The arrested man, born in 1985, has “numerous antecedents”he said. The suspect is notably “known for similar acts of destruction by fire”. Housed in a shelter before the events, he is “under hearing” this Tuesday morning.
Originally from Boulogne-sur-Mer, the suspect has already been convicted for the destruction of a building linked to religion in this city, the prosecutor told France Bleu Nord. The man was recently released from prison, although he had been incarcerated since 2021 for this type of act.
His arrest is linked “to human information collected on the ground and corroborated”explained Mickaël Derycke, the commissioner of Saint-Omer, to The Voice of the North. “The national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office has not been notified, and most certainly will not be.”he said.
The prosecutor is currently considering a criminal qualification of the facts, for “destruction of property by dangerous means due to religion”. A press conference by the mayor and the prosecutor is scheduled for this Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
The fire broke out on Monday, around 4:30 a.m., in this 19th-century building. Thanks to the action of 120 firefighters, the fire was contained in the morning. The operation required the evacuation of 57 people, including 14 neighboring homes, according to police sources, and a security perimeter was set up until the fire was brought under control.
Images of the damage shared by the Pas-de-Calais firefighters now show a church that has become open to the sky, after the collapse of its bell tower and vault. The stained glass windows are not, “not too damaged”according to the parish priest, Sébastien Roussel.
