PARIS: A Jewish man wearing a skullcap was stabbed on the street in the eastern French city of Strasbourg by an attacker who reportedly cried "Allahu akbar" - "God is Greatest" - as he carried out his assault.
The 62-year-old had just stepped out of his home in the Jewish district of the city, near the town's main synagogue, when he was stabbed in the stomach.
His injuries were not life-threatening and he was expected to make a full recovery, according to Strasbourg's chief rabbi, Rene Gutman.
The victim managed to get away from his attacker, who was in his 40s, after being stabbed and took refuge in a nearby bar where he removed the knife from his stomach himself, local media reported. Customers and staff barricaded the doors to keep the assailant out and then telephoned the police and for an ambulance.
Police arrested a suspect, who has psychiatric issues and was involved in a vicious attack on a Jewish man in 2010, at the scene.
Rabbi Gutman cited witnesses as saying the victim's alleged assailant shouted "Allahu akbar" as he wielded his knife.
The incident comes at a time when France is on edge after a string of Islamic extremist attacks. Jews have been specifically targeted in some past violence. The attacks began with the killings in Paris in January last year at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.
Jews were also targeted in March 2012, when Islamist gunman Mohammed Merah killed three soldiers and four Jews, three of them children.
Police said they were not categorising the latest assault in Strasbourg as a terrorist incident.