(JTA) – A Jewish teacher in Marseille was stabbed by a man who wore an Islamic State T-shirt and shouted anti-Semitic profanities at him with two other men.

The victim, a history teacher at a French Jewish school, was wounded in the incident Wednesday night but his life is not in danger, the AFP news agency reported based on an account of the incident given by the chief of police of the Bouches-du-Rhone district.

The attackers fled the scene and are the subject of an ongoing manhunt involving many units, the police officer, Laurent Nuñez, said.

The teacher, a bearded, observant Jew, was wearing a kippah, Michele Teboul, the president of the local branch of the CRIF umbrella of French Jews, told JTA. A young man approached him on a moped in Marseille’s 13th arrondissement, or district and showed him a picture of Mohammed Merah, the killer of four Jews in Toulouse, Jonathan Sandler, his two sons, Gabriel and Arieh, and 8-year-old Miriam Monsonego, in 2012. The picture was on the motorcyclist’s cellular phone, Teboul said.

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The attacker also showed the teacher, who asked not to be named in media, that he was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the symbol of the Islamic State terrorist group.  Then the man produced a knife and stabbed the teacher, who sustained superficial injuries. The two other suspects believed to have been involved in the attack stood by, and joined in when the attacker began shouting anti-Semitic profanities. They did not stab the victim.

The teacher filed a complaint with police as he was being treated, and was evacuated to hospital. On her way to visit the teacher in hospital, Teboul confirmed initial reports his life was not in danger. The victim, she added, was conscious.

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