Muslim prayer room vandalised in Corsica

A crowd vandalised a Muslim prayer room in Corsica in apparent retaliation for an attack on firefighters who were responding to an emergency in a housing project.

French officials say a small group of protestors also tried to burn copies of the Koran in the capital, Ajaccio.

State prefect Christophe Mirmand said police reinforcements from mainland France have been called into the Corsican capital of Ajaccio, while prayer rooms and mosques are being guarded.

Two separate investigations have been launched, one into the attack on firefighters on Thursday and the other into the damage to the prayer room on Friday.

Tensions have been high on the Mediterranean island, since firefighters responding to an emergency call on Thursday night were ambushed in a housing project in the hills of Ajaccio. It was not clear what prompted that violence.

On Friday, around 600 people gathered in front of the prefecture in Ajaccio to show their solidarity with the injured firefighters. However, the display eventually got violent when several dozen people broke away from the crowd and headed to the prayer room.

Chanting “Arabs get out” and “This is our home”, the demonstrators attacked and ransacked the prayer room, threw objects, partially burned copies of the Koran, and vandalised a nearby kebab shop.

French prime minister Manuel Valls called for respect for French law after “the intolerable aggression toward firefighters and unacceptable profanation of a Muslim place of prayer”.

French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve pledged that the perpetrators of both the attacks on the firefighters and the prayer hall will be identified and arrested. He added that the “intolerable exactions” against the prayer hall carried the “odour of racism and xenophobia, which there is no place for in France”.

France has stepped up security measures for the Christmas holidays, following the 13 November Paris attacks by Islamist militants that left 130 people dead.