French police officers have "neutralised" an armed individual who was intent on setting fire to a synagogue.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the incident took place in the town of Rouen in northern France.

Rouen mayor said in a post the Normandy town was "battered and shocked." Local media reports the suspect rushed towards officers with a knife.

According to local authorities, the attacker's identity and motive are still unclear and that he was carrying a knife and iron bar when the incident occurred.

President of France's Consistoire Central Jewish worshippers body Elie Korchia said police had "avoided another anti-Semitic tragedy".

Regional broadcaster France 3 said fire fighters were on the site. The fire had been brought under control, a Rouen city hall official said.

France hosts the Olympic Summer Games in two months and recently raised its alert status to the highest level against a complex geopolitical backdrop in the Middle East and Europe's eastern flank.

The city in 2016 was rocked by an attack later claimed by the Islamic State, when a priest was killed with a knife during service in town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in the southern part of Rouen's urban agglomeration.

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It comes just days after Mohamed Amra, a fugitive known as "The Fly", was freed by gunmen in a brazen attack against a prison van that killed two guards and wounded three.

A Peugeot car that had been stolen a few days earlier rammed into the front of one of the prison vans, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.

Armed men got out of the Peugeot and were joined by another crew who got out of an Audi, before they opened fire on the two vans. Two officers were killed and three critically wounded. The assailants then sped off with Amra.

Two burned out vehicles that were found nearby are now undergoing forensic examination, Beccuau said.

More to come...