France 'facing new form of anti-Semitism'

France is facing a "new form of anti-Semitism" marked by violence, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says, following an assault in a Paris suburb on an eight-year-old boy wearing a Jewish skullcap.

President Emmanuel Macron earlier denounced the attack in Sarcelles, a northern suburb with a large Jewish population, as "heinous."

French media have described the attackers as teenagers who ran away after tripping and kicking the boy to the ground. Police were investigating but there have been no arrests.

Speaking before lawmakers, Philippe noted the emergence of a new kind of anti-Semitism in France, which has the largest Jewish population in western Europe.

To fight something, one must have "the courage to put a name on it ... to acknowledge that, yes, there is a new form of anti-Semitism, violent and brutal, emerging more and more openly in our land," Philippe said.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb and Jewish leaders say the number of anti-Semitic acts in France has risen this month after a drop in previous years.