A 13-year-old Jewish boy was brutally attacked on Monday evening in Paris’s 18th arrondissement while on his way to shul. Five thugs assaulted him, beat him, threatened him with a knife, and robbed him while shouting antisemitic slurs.

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the incident took place at around 7:20 p.m. on Boulevard de la Chapelle. The boy told the police that the five assailants approached him as he was walking to shul, demanding that he empty his pockets and give them his jacket.

They then violently assaulted him—knocking him to the ground, punching him in the face, and holding a knife to his neck—all while shouting antisemitic remarks. They also stole his AirPods.

At the time of the incident, the boy was on a video call with another person, who later was able to identify one of the attackers. As a result, an 18-year-old suspect was arrested. The other four assailants have not yet been apprehended.

Police launched an investigation and are working to locate and arrest the remaining suspects, who will be charged with armed robbery and aggravated violence committed as a group motivated by ethnic hatred.

The incident comes amid a rash of antisemitic attacks in the French capital in recent days. Three Jewish men were targeted Friday evening on their way home from shul by an assailant with a knife in Paris’s 16th arrondissement, and last week a Chabad elementary school in Paris was vandalized.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)