A Jewish teacher has been stabbed on a street in the southern French city of Marseille by three men who professed their support for ISIS.
The men, who were riding on two scooters, with one wearing an ISIS T-shirt, approached the history teacher, named as Tziyon Saadon.
According to the Daily Mail, the 57-year-old victim, who was wearing a kippa, was attacked outside his home, a short distance from the school and synagogue complex, a source close to the investigation said.
The attackers showed him a picture on their mobile phones of Mohamed Merah, a homegrown Islamist militant who killed seven people in a series of attacks in southern France in 2012, including three schoolchildren.
Mr Saadon, named by the Jerusalem Post, was then stabbed in the arm and leg but his condition is not said to be life threatening.
He was taken to hospital as officers fanned out across the district to search of the attackers, who fled when a police patrol arrived in the area.
Marseilles prosecutor Brice Robin said: ‘The three people insulted, threatened and then stabbed their victim in the arm and leg.
‘They were interrupted by the arrival of a car and fled.’
Police prefect Laurent Nunez said large numbers of officers were now combing the area for the attackers.
The UEJF Jewish students’ union condemned the attack in a statement and urged police to use all means to catch the assailants.
Michele Teboul, the regional president of the Jewish representative group CRIF, said: ‘I’m very shocked. because this is the second incident of its kind in a very short time,’ adding she was ‘worried’ about the threat of further attacks.
The attack came several weeks after a knife attack on a rabbi in the city, France’s second biggest.
The stabbing comes as France is on heightened alert following the Islamist attacks that killed 129 people in Paris at the weekend.
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