Italian authorities in Tuscany are investigating an attack on a 12-year-old Jewish boy who said teenagers kicked him, hit him on the head and hurled antisemitic abuse at him.

The boy�s parents on Tuesday reported the weekend attack in a park near their home in the town of Campiglia Marittima, near Livorno, according to a statement from town officials.

Florence daily The Nation reported that the assailants told the boy: �You need to be quiet because you are Jewish,� and used other demeaning and insulting language. They also said �you should die in the oven,� a reference to World War II Nazi death camps where Jews were murdered and their remains burned.

The boy�s father told the paper that nobody intervened on his son�s behalf.

The mayor of Campiglia Marittima, Alberta Ticciati, said video recordings from the park were being reviewed by investigators.

�The boy is in shock,” Ticciati told SKY TG24 Wednesday. �Gestures of this kind must be handled with firmness. They cannot be permitted. It is not explicable.�

Liliana Segre, a Holocaust survivor who is senator-for-life, expressed indignation over the attack.

�These are things that amaze me, but unfortunately I am used to it,” said Segre, who was placed under police protection after receiving threats several years ago. �History repeats itself,” said the 91-year-old, who was deported from Italy at the age of 13.

Antisemitic incidents have been on the increase in Italy, in particular over the last half dozen years, according to a database compiled by the Milan-based Center of Contemporary Jewish Documents� Observatory on Anti-Jewish Prejudice.

(AP)