A Jewish man was attacked with a machete by a teenager in Marseille, France, on Monday in an apparent anti-Semitic incident.
The attack occurred just after 9 a.m. The victim, who was identifiably Jewish because he was wearing a yarmulke, is a school teacher who was on his way to work. He was followed by a teenager who attacked him with a large machete, causing injuries to his back and hands.
The teacher then managed to scare away the teenager, who ran off and left the machete at the scene. Before he ran off, the teenager reportedly yelled Allahu Akbar (“God is great” in Arabic), according to the Marseille branch of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).
“We know that it is a clearly anti-Semitic act, a serious act committed a few dozen metres” from a Jewish school, said local police chief Laurent Nunez, according to the thelocal.fr website.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called the incident a “revolting anti-Semitic attack” on Twitter.
Soutien à la victime de la révoltante agression antisémite de #Marseille. Enquête en cours sous l’autorité de la Justice.
— Bernard Cazeneuve (@BCazeneuve) January 11, 2016
