PARIS, May 11 (Reuters) - A 27-year-old man suspected of planning a violent attack and of wanting to join Islamic State in Syria or Mozambique had sought to target a museum in Paris and Jews, without specifying a particular target, a source familiar with the investigation said on Monday.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that the man, who was arrested on Thursday, had attempted to target the Louvre Museum and the Jewish community in a Paris region.

The issue of security lapses at the Louvre, the world's most visited museum, came to the fore last October when thieves made off with $102 million worth of jewelry.

France, like the rest of Europe, saw an increase in anti-Semitic incidents to record levels following Israel’s air and ground offensive on Gaza after an attack by Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) militants on Israel on October 7, 2023.