French police searching for suspect who assaulted man near Paris synagogue

By AP 3 March 2024, 3:47 pm

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A French riot policeman stands guard outside the Paris Synagogue, two days after security measures were reinforced near Jewish temples and schools, in central Paris, on October 9, 2023. (JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

French authorities are searching for an assailant who attacked a man leaving a synagogue in Paris, says Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Darmanin says the alleged attack on a man in his early 60s was “a new antisemitic attack that occurred in Paris” Friday evening.

“Everything is being done to apprehend the perpetrator of this unspeakable act,” Darmanin says in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Reports in French media say that an assailant was seen physically and verbally assaulting a man in his early 60s on Friday around 5:30 p.m. local time as he was leaving a synagogue in Paris’s 20th arrondissement.

The assailant kicked and punched the man several times, and shouted an ethnic slur at him, according to a report by French broadcaster BFM, citing police sources. The victim of the attack was taken to a hospital. The suspected attacker fled on foot, the report also said.