A Jewish man was injured Monday morning during an attempted stabbing attack outside a synagogue in the southern French city of Marseille, police sources said.

Binyamin Amsalem, a teacher, sustained light injuries to his hand when a man wielding a machete attacked him when he was on his way to the synagogue for morning prayers, local reports said.

The attacker reportedly threw the knife before fleeing the scene.

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Police said the perpetrator was caught 10 minutes later and has been taken into custody.

“The individual does not seem to be in full control of his faculties,” a source close to the matter was quoted as saying. Other sources however, quoted police as saying he was “not mentally unstable.”

Reports said he is 16 years old.

מרסיי: מורה יהודי הותקף על ידי מחבל עם סכין באורך 50 ס"מ. למזלו, המורה, בשם בנימין אמסלם, נדקר רק בידו והצליח לברוח pic.twitter.com/Izm0lXRORz — Zvika Klein (@ZvikaKlein) January 11, 2016

There have been a series of attacks on Jews in France in recent years, including a shooting at a kosher supermarket in Paris in January 2015 that killed four.

In November a teacher at a Jewish school in Marseille was stabbed by three people shouting anti-Semitic obscenities.

In October a rabbi and two Jewish worshipers were stabbed outside a synagogue in Marseille following Shabbat prayers. The knife-wielding assailant could be heard shouting anti-Semitic slurs at the time of the assault.

AFP contributed to this report.