A teacher was attacked in Paris, three days after 10,000 people gathered there to protest against antisemitism. His injuries were so bad he needed hospital treatment for facial injuries.

According to the watchdog group BNVCA — the Bureau for National Vigilance Against Antisemitism — the 57-year old man was leaving a kosher restaurant in the city’s 19th arrondissement when he was attacked by three men speaking Arabic.

BNVCA president Sammy Ghozlan said they called the victim a “dirty Jew” and shouted “death to the Jews”, before they “pressed him to the wall and hit his face, his eyes and his chest. One of the perpetrators opened the victim’s shirt and with a black marker drew a swastika on his chest”.

The man, who has been identified only as “K Richard”, was wearing a kippah at the time of the assault. He described his assailants as young and of North African descent.

Paris Mayor Betrand Delanoe said: “This act of unspeakable cowardice is a betrayal of the foundation of the Republic and the values of Paris.”