Anti-semitic attack in Paris

Arsonists destroyed a Jewish community center in eastern Paris in a pre-dawn attack Sunday and left behind anti-Semitic graffiti, police said.

No one was hurt as flames tore through the center located on the first floor of a six-story building. The center, which served as a meeting place and cafeteria for the elderly and disadvantaged, was gutted, rescue officials said, informs ABC News.

A representative for the Jewish representative council in France told the AFP news agency that those who had defaced and damaged the centre had been motivated by Jewish hatred.

The BBC's Allan Little in Paris says the reaction of two senior government figures is a measure of the level of concern about a rise in anti-Semitic actions and sentiment in the country, reports BBC News.

Only this month a swastika was painted on the ground in front of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, and swastikas and anti-Semitic messages painted on 60 Jewish graves in Lyon.

The country is home to Europe's biggest Jewish and Muslim communities, estimated at 650,000 and five million respectively, says Sky News.

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