Mosques throughout France were targeted in at least three separate attacks Wednesday night and early Thursday, though there were no immediate reports of injuries, NBC News reported. An explosion occurred early Thursday near a mosque in the eastern French town of Villefranche-sur-Saône, about 250 miles from the French capital. A mosque in Le Mans was attacked just after midnight, according to the Le Maine Libre newspaper. On Wednesday night, another in Port-la-Nouvelle, in southern France on the border of Spain, reported shots fired at a prayer room from the outside, according to the newspaper Midi Libre. The surge in violence follows Wednesday's massacre at the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had published controversial cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
