Jewish teacher stabbed in Marseilles by Islamic State supporters
Three people allegedly attack ultra-Orthodox Jew, severely wounding him.
Tzion Saadon, a teacher at a Jewish school in the southern French city of Marseilles was stabbed on Wednesday by three people professing support for Islamic State, but his life was not in danger, prosecutors said.
Three people on two scooters, one of them wearing an Islamic State T-shirt, approached the teacher in the street, Marseilles prosecutor Brice Robin told Reuters.
Another showed a picture on his cell phone of Mohamed Merah, a homegrown Islamist terrorist who killed seven people in a series of attacks in southern France in 2012.
"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," Robin added.
The victim was reportedly seriously wounded but in stable condition.
The knifing was the first attack directed at Jews since Friday's coordinated assault on Paris, but a series of attacks on Jews has occurred in various countries recently.
An ultra-Orthodox man was stabbed in Milan about 20 meters from his home last week. According to reports, the attacker was Muslim and fled the scene.
A week before that, a Jewish man was stabbed in the back on the street in Brooklyn. The motive was not immediately clear, but community leaders warned that people should be cautious.
Two Israeli yeshiva students were attacked in Manhattan a few weeks earlier by an anonymous individual who threw a Molotov cocktail. The attacker fled and has yet to be apprehended.
