An explosion has been reported at a kebab shop near a mosque in eastern French town of Villefranche-sur-Saone.
This comes just a day after gunmen attacked the headquarters of the satirical French Magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
The AFP news agency has reported several attacks against French mosques since the killing of the journalists in a daring gun attack by al-Qaeda affiliated militants.
Three blank grenades were reportedly thrown at a mosque shortly after midnight local time in the city of Le Mans, west of Paris. There are also reports from Port-la-Nouvelle district near Narbonne in southern France that shots were fired in the direction of a Muslim prayer hall shortly after evening prayers.
"It is a criminal act," a local official told AFP referring to the explosion near the mosque on Thursday.
Wednesday's incident – which seems to be fuelling further antagonism against Muslims – comes at a time when anti-Islamic movements are growing in Europe, especially in neighbouring Germany where thousands are taking to the streets to protest against the "Islamisation" of Europe.
The shooting also adds to a tense environment, with an anti-immigrant party dominating in France, and comes close on the heels of reports suggesting mosque burnings in Sweden and thousands marching against the rise of Islam in Germany.
"Any incident like the one in Paris will only be fuel to the fire," Bloomberg quoted Joerg Forbrig, the senior programme director at the German Marshall Fund of the United States as saying. "It will [be] welcomed as a 'told-you-so' episode by radical movements saying Islam is a threat to our countries."
Shada Islam, director of policy at the Friends of Europe advisory group in Brussels said: "Europe is in the grip of so much tension over the question of Islam and immigration. There is the danger in the immediate aftermath that this is going to strengthen the anti-immigration campaigns, but you have to have a longer-term strategy when the emotions subside."
The masked men – who are currently at large – haven't revealed what their motive was. Also no organisation has claimed responsibly for the attack. The attackers are known to have shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great" In Abrabic while launching the attack – something that is sure to be a pick up point for anti-Islamic protesters to intensify their hatred towards Muslims, analysts have noted.
The leader of the anti-Islam Freedom party in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, also reportedly took aim at the Dutch and European governments asking them if Europe will ever get the "message". He directly took aim at Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, asking: "When will Rutte and other western government leaders finally get the message: its war."
