Paris attacks: Muslim and Jew targeted in race-hate attacks

Police secure the area near where the Jewish school teacher was injured in a stabbing in Marseille. Picture: AFP/Getty

A Muslim woman wearing a veil was punched and slashed with a box cutter as she left the subway by someone who made references to her religious dress, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

In a separate incident at around 8pm local time (7pm GMT), a teacher at a Jewish school was attacked by three individuals who slashed him with a knife while making anti-Semitic insults and justifying terrorism, according to the statement.

French media reported that the gang of three men claimed to support Islamic State (IS), and that the victim was stabbed in the leg.

The woman was taken to an emergency room and the man taken to hospital but his wounds were not life-threatening.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said “everything is being done to capture” the attackers.

A statement from the Interior Ministry said: “The interior minister addresses support to victims and to the Marseillais of Jewish and Muslim faiths.

“Everything is done to find and question those responsible for these unspeakable acts, who must face justice.

“Bernard Cazeneuve reminds the total government’s determination to combat all forms of racism and anti-Semitism, and to severely punish advocating terrorism.

“More than ever, the French must come together around the values of the Republic.”

Co-ordinated atacks by an IS group last week on France’s national stadium and a concert hall and several bars and restaurants in Paris left 129 people dead and wounded 368 others, and led to calls from political and religious leaders for French of all faiths and backgrounds to remain united.