A rabbi and his son were attacked at knife-point Tuesday morning in Paris, French newspaper Le Monde reported.
The rabbi, in his fifties, and his 18-year-old son were attacked, suffering stab wounds to the neck, while traveling from a synagogue after morning services in the city’s ninth arrondissement, the report stated. They sustained minor injuries.
The assailant yelled cries of “Allahu Akbar” during an alleged attempt to assassinate the two, according to French web magazine JSSNews.
According to Le Monde, the assailant was a recently escaped patient from a psychiatric hospital who was allegedly born in Tehran, but whose nationality was not initially indicated. French news site Dreuz reported he was 28-years-old, and was wearing a uniform from the Vénissieux psychiatric hospital.
Witnesses reportedly suppressed the perpetrator until police arrived and arrested him.
The rabbi was identified by the French news sites Dreuz.info and JSS News as “Rabbi Baroukh,” 50, of a synagogue situated on Saunier Street in Paris.
Authorities were investigating possible anti-Semitic motives behind the attack, though exact reasons for the attack were unconfirmed.