France investigates attack on teacher at Jewish school

French authorities are investigating an attack on a Jewish teacher that left him slightly injured on Monday morning, Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve said.

People stand in front of the La Source Jewish school in Marseille, France, after a Jewish teacher was attacked.

 The teacher was wearing a yarmulke en route to school in the southern French city of Marseille when he was attacked by a youth wielding a machete, France's Jewish council said.

His hands were slightly injured as he defended himself against the attack, the council, known by its acronym Crif, said. According to local newspaper La Provence, the 16-year-old attacker, of Kurdish origin, threatened to continue trying to kill Jewish people, prompting Marseille authorities to open an inquiry into attempted murder.


Cazeneuve decried the attack on social media, expressing his "support for the victim of this revolting anti-Semitic aggression in Marseille".

The case was not immediately transferred to the anti-terrorism prosecutor in Paris. France is under high alert due to multiple terror attacks last year, with security bolstered at prominent Jewish and Muslim sites across the country.

One of the attacks last January targeted a kosher market. In 2012, seven people, including four people at a Jewish school, were killed by a French-Algerian man in the south of France, fanning fears of rising intolerance.