Police said Wednesday that they had launched a probe into two people in connection with posters found on the wall outside the French Embassy in central Seoul condemning France’s treatment of Muslims.

The Embassy of France in Korea filed a complaint after it found five posters on Sunday next to the main entrance to the embassy, claiming France was attempting to “destroy” Islam, according to a Seodaemun Police Station official.

The posters said, “Don’t destroy our religion” and “Those who put a knife to our throat will be killed by the knife,” among other messages. On another poster, an “X” sign was drawn on a picture of French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the police.

This came amid intensifying tensions between France and Muslim-majority countries after French President Macron defended freedom of speech in the wake of the beheading of a teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his pupils in class last month.

Muslims see any depiction of the prophet as blasphemous.

Police are looking for two unidentified men in their late 20s or early 30s captured in CCTV footage. The suspects do not appear to be Korean, based on how they look, said the official, who wished to stay anonymous. 

“Based on how the posters were designed and how they were placed on the wall of the embassy building, it seems like the suspects had plotted to do this for quite some time for the purpose of warning the embassy,” he said.

The police are considering charging the two men with threatening a foreign envoy.

The Embassy of France to Korea refused to comment on the matter.

rkIn response to the killing of the French teacher outside his school in suburban Paris by a young Muslim on Oct. 16, Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and vowed to present a bill before the end of this year to strengthen a French law officially mandating the separation of church and state.

The issue has sparked anti-France protests and a boycott of French products in many Muslim countries.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)