He lived next door to Mrs Knoll, and regularly used to visit her, after the pair first met when he was seven. A spokesman for SPCJ, the Protection Service for the Jewish Community in Paris, originally said 'the investigation does not reveal any anti-Semitic elements'. But during a visit to Israel on Monday, France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was 'plausible' that Mrs Knoll was killed because she was a Jew. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo urged all Parisians to join a silent march in memory of Mrs Knoll on Wednesday, and politicians across the political spectrum pledged to attend. But anti-Semitic violence increased by 26 percent, and criminal damage to Jewish places of worship and burial by 22 percent.

Source: Daily Mail March 27, 2018 08:53 UTC