Motivated by rise in anti-Semitism, French prosecutors treat Lyon knife attack as 'attempted murder'

French prosecutors have begun investigating an attack against a young Jewish woman who was stabbed in her home in the French city of Lyon, suspecting anti-Semitism as the motive.

Police say they are treating Saturday's attack as attempted murder, adding that the woman's life was not in danger and no arrests have been made.

The prosecutors' office in the southeastern city said late Saturday night, "This act could have anti-Semitism as its motive."

According to the woman's statement, she opened her door to a person who rang the doorbell and then stabbed her twice.

Dressed in dark clothes and with their face partly concealed, the attacker then fled the scene.

A swastika – the symbol used in Nazi Germany and by neo-Nazis – was reportedly found scrawled on her door, but police have been unable to determine whether it had been put there ahead of the attack.

• French prosecutors investigate anti-Semitic slurs on Paris metro

• France to ban far-right party Civitas over anti-Semitic remarks

Attack of 'unprecedented intensity'

Yonathan Arfi, chairman of the CRIF – the representative council of Jewish institutions in France – told BFMTV that the Lyon attack was "a phenomenon of unprecedented intensity in France."

Read more on RFI English

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