French police said on Monday they had arrested a man suspected of firing shots at a mosque in Bayonne the south-west of France.
Two men in their seventies were seriously injured in the shooting -- happened around 1400 GMT -- at a mosque in the southern French city of Bayonne, local authorities said.
The victims surprised the attacker while he was trying to set the door of the mosque on fire, and he then opened fire on them, authorities also said in another statement published on Twitter.
The attacker then set fire to a vehicle while leaving, the Pyrenees-Atlantiques prefecture stated.
The victims were hospitalized, the prefecture added.
The man in his eighties was arrested near his home after the incident that also involved a small explosion, presumably from a petrol can set on fire near the place of worship on Monday afternoon.
A fire arm and a gas cannister were found in the car of suspected gunman.
The man had connections with the far right and was a candidate of Marine Le Pen's National Front Party, which later changed its name to National Rally, media reports also said, quotting police sources.
