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Jewish teacher wounded in machete attack in Marseille

The 35-year-old suffered hand and back wounds in what police said was a 'clearly anti-Semitic act' close to the city's Franco-Hebraic Institute.

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A teenager wielding a machete has attacked a Jewish teacher on his way to work in Marseille, injuring him slightly, in what police said was an anti-Semitic attack, reports The Guardian.

The 35-year-old teacher sustained wounds to his back and one hand in the incident near the Franco-Hebraic Institute on Monday.

The assailant, said to be around 15 years old, dropped the machete and fled from the scene. Police apprehended a suspect 10 minutes later.

“We know that it is a clearly anti-Semitic act, a serious act committed a few dozen metres” from a Jewish school, a police spokesman said.

France’s interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, tweeted: “Support for the victim of the revolting anti-Semitic aggression in Marseille.”

The attack came nearly two months after another assault, north of Marseille, in which three people shouting anti-Semitic phrases and expressing support for Islamic State stabbed a Jewish teacher, injuring him in the arms, legs and stomach.

Read more of this AFP report published buy The Guardian.