Saint-Ouen – An investigation is underway in France to track down a group of men who allegedly attacked a 53-year-old Jewish man on Saturday as he was leaving the Saint-Ouen synagogue in the Seine-Saint-Denis department north of Paris.
The man, who owns a supermarket and has lived in the area for 15 years, said he was leaving the synagogue with a Rabbi at around 1:20 pm on Saturday when he was pursued by a man aged around 25.
As he walked along Rue du Docteur Bauer the man following him repeatedly called him “dirty Jew”. When he failed to react the attacker spat at him and when he told the man to stop, things turned ugly.
“He head-butted me, I was bleeding everywhere,” the victim was quoted as saying by Le Parisien.
He then spoke of how he tried to defend himself before the attacker was joined by two other men.
“They beat me up. They kicked me in the leg, back and that’s when the first attacker took out a knife. I heard the others saying ‘Go on, stab him, Jew’,” he recalled.
He said he then jumped on his attacker to get him to drop the knife and hit him as people shouted ‘call the police!’
The attackers eventually fled after kicking him in the stomach.
The victim reported the incident on Sunday and police are now working to identify the attackers and to determine the anti-Semitic nature of the attack.
