Tourist Ransacks Basilica of Boulogne-sur-Mer

Case information
Incident date
Country
France
Place
Boulogne-sur-Mer
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Private
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Desecration
  • Vandalism (all)
  • Vandalism of Church
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Censorship or Removal of Public Christian Symbols
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Lack of Other Motive
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
Reported to Police
  • Yes
Response of Local Authorities
  • Investigated
Image credit: Twitter

On the 26. July at night, a US-American tourist ransacked the Basilica of Boulogne-sur-Mer. In the pictures posted by the police on Twitter one can see benches were knocked down, statues broken on the ground, the altar was ransacked and other sacred objects were damaged. The man was arrested by the local police.

The police found the man "covered in blood and in a state of madness".

The mayor, Frédéric Cuvillier, called it "a damning and unspeakable act". The town mayor commented that "this act of vandalism is not, a priori, a claim but seems to be the result of an act of insanity". At the end of his custody, the suspect was sent to undergo a psychiatric examination, which would determine whether he will be prosecuted.

Sources