Paris, France (CNN) An 84-year-old man has been arrested after shots were fired near a mosque in southwestern France, officials said.

Pyrenees-Atlantique Police said a man tried to set fire to the door of a mosque in the city of Bayonne, and shot at two men, aged 74 and 78, who startled him. Both were seriously injured.

The attacker had been a member of Marine Le Pen's far-right party National Front until 2015, according to the party's official. (The party is now known as National Rally.)

"This man was effectively a part of the 8,000 candidates we had for the [2015] regional elections," National Rally vice president and European Parliament MP Jordan Bardella told CNN affiliate BFM TV on Monday.

"I can assure you that nothing throughout his path would've suggested that he was crazy," Bardella said on BFM TV.

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