A 30-year-old Jewish woman was stabbed twice at her home in Lyon and a swastika carved into the front door of her apartment, French police have announced.
According to local media, authorities were called to a residence shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday in the Montluc district of the French city.
They found the victim, who had sustained two stab wounds to the abdomen and a large swastika carved into her front door.
Emergency responders transported the victim to a hospital in Lyon for treatment. It is understood her injuries are not life-threatening and she has been helping police with their inquiries from her hospital bed.
The perpetrator remains on the loose and is understood to be a male dressed in black. No further details regarding the suspect’s identity have yet been made public.
“The initial findings led the Lyon public prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into attempted murder aggravated by the fact that the act could have been motivated by an anti-Semitic motive,” a statement from the public prosecutor’s office read, as cited by Lyon-based newspaper Le Progrès.
“The victim, her family, and the Jewish community are shocked,” Stéphane Drai, a lawyer for the victim, told French broadcaster BFMTV.
The city’s mayor, Grégory Doucet, described the attack as “unspeakable.”
“All my support to the victim and her loved ones,” he added in a social media post.
There has been a dramatic rise in acts of anti-Semitism across France following the aftermath of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, which prompted a formidable response from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin late last month said that since Oct. 7 there had been 819 reports of anti-Semitic acts, close to double the 436 acts throughout the whole of last year, and a recent BFMTV poll revealed that 83 percent of French people were concerned by the anti-Jewish sentiment on display.
Stars of David were sprayed on the doors of Jewish residences in Paris this past week, with local mayors saying the incidents “recall the events of the 1930s, which led to the extermination of millions of Jews.”
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti confirmed on Sunday that approximately 400 people were arrested for anti-Semitic acts last month.
