TUNIS, Tunisia?A truck filled with natural gas crashed into the outer wall of a synagogue on a Tunisian resort island Thursday, killing five people and injuring about 20.
The official news agency and the synagogue president both said they believed it was an accident, but Israel’s deputy foreign minister called it a deliberate anti-Semitic attack.
The explosion on the island of Djerba killed the driver of the truck, a police officer and three others, the TAP news agency said. But Perez Trabelsi, a Jewish leader and president of the historic Ghriba synagogue, identified the victims as four German tourists and the truck driver. The German Foreign Ministry said more than 20 Germans were injured, but had no immediate information on deaths.
Tunisia is a predominantly Muslim nation with a population of about 7.5 million. The country is not known as a hotbed of Islamic terrorism.