Israel urges French Jews to flee after factory attack

An Israeli minister on Friday urged French Jews to flee to the Jewish state after a suspected Islamist attacked a factory near Lyon and pinned a severed head to the gates.

"I call on the Jews of France – come home! Anti-Semitism is rising, terror is increasing," immigration minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party said in a statement.

"This is a national mission of the highest priority."

A suspected Islamist launched a daylight raid on an industrial gas factory in France Friday.

"The intent was without doubt to cause an explosion. It was a terrorist attack," said French President Francois Hollande in Brussels, cutting short an EU summit to chair emergency meetings in the French capital.

The victim was identified as a businessman from the suburbs of Lyon.

Netanyahu sparked controversy by encouraging French Jews to move to Israel in the wake of January's Paris attacks that left 17 dead, including four at a Jewish supermarket.
Source: AFP