The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, expressed dismay on Tuesday after after "the hateful anti-Semitic attack" suffered by a 12-year-old Jewish boy near the Ozar Hatorah school in the 13th district of Paris.
The attack, during which the boy was beaten by three other youths of almost the same age shouting anti-Semitic slogans, came only one week after the killings by an Islamist terrorist of three Jewish children, 3, 5 and 7-year-old, and a rabbi teacher, father of two of the killed children, at a school of the Ozar hatorah high school network in Toulouse, in southwestern France.
"I have learned with dismay the hateful anti-Semitic attack," the mayor said in a statement, reiterating his "determination to fight tirelessly against anti-Semitism".
He reaffirmed his "commitment to defend the values ​​of tolerance and universality which are those of Paris" and expressed "deep sympathy" to the victim and his family.
According to a preliminary investigation and according to the victim's statements, he left the Ozar Hatorah college around 4 pm when he was approached by three youths aged about 13-14 years, who uttered anti-Semitic insults, police said.
He was beaten and hit at the head by one of the alleged attackers but was not seriously injured.
The boy's family was "strongly encouraged to file a complaint" to the police, said the source.
The attack happened about 100 meters from the entrance of the school but out of sight of the police guarding it. French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered security increased at Jewish and Muslim schools and synagogues after last week's shooting.
In a statement, the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) spoke of a “climate of concern and anxiety in the Jewish community" of France.
Around 600,000 Jews live in the country.

EJP