A Jewish history teacher has been stabbed on a street in the southern French city of Marseille by three men who professed their support for ISIS.

The men, who were riding on two scooters, with one wearing an ISIS T-shirt, approached the teacher, named tonight as Tziyon Saadon.

The 57-year-old victim, who was wearing a kippa, was attacked outside his home, a short distance from the school and synagogue complex, a source close to the investigation said.

Tziyon Saadon (pictured left) has been named as the Jewish history teacher stabbed on the street in Marseille by three men who professed their support for ISIS. They showed him a picture of homegrown militant Mohamed Merah (right) on a mobile phone before launching their attack

They showed him a picture on their mobile phones of Mohamed Merah, a homegrown Islamist militant who killed seven people in a series of attacks in southern France in 2012, including three schoolchildren.

Mr Saadon, named by the Jerusalem Post, was then stabbed in the arm and leg but his condition is not said to be life threatening.

He was taken to hospital as officers fanned out across the district to search of the attackers, who fled when a police patrol arrived in the area.

Marseilles prosecutor Brice Robin said: 'The three people insulted, threatened and then stabbed their victim in the arm and leg.

'They were interrupted by the arrival of a car and fled.'

Tsion Sylvain Saadoun, a teacher at a Jewish school who was attacked on Wednesday, lifts his shirt to show his wounds at his home in Marseille on Thursday

The men, who were riding on two scooters, with one wearing an ISIS T-shirt, approached the teacher, named tonight as Tziyon Saadon, as he was walking down the street. Police are pictured at the scene of the stabbing

Police prefect Laurent Nunex said large numbers of officers were now combing the area for the attackers

Police prefect Laurent Nunez said large numbers of officers were now combing the area for the attackers.

The UEJF Jewish students' union condemned the attack in a statement and urged police to use all means to catch the assailants.

It said that the victim, a history and geography teacher, had received three knife wounds.

While Michele Teboul, the regional president of the Jewish representative group CRIF, said: 'I'm very shocked. because this is the second incident of its kind in a very short time,' adding she was 'worried' about the threat of further attacks.

The attack came several weeks after a knife attack on a rabbi in the city, France's second biggest.

The men, who were riding on two scooters, with one wearing an ISIS T-shirt, approached the teacher who was walking down the street. Pictured is a road in Marseille where a banner showing support for victims of the Paris terror attacks was erected

The stabbing comes as France is on heightened alert following the Islamist attacks that killed 129 people in Paris at the weekend.

The terror attacks, which were claimed by the ISIS jihadist group, were the worst in French history.

Parliament is due to begin debating a three-month extension of the state of emergency declared over the violence.

French Muslims meanwhile fear blowback from the attacks.

On Wednesday, a young woman in a headscarf was attacked as she was leaving a metro station in central Marseille by a man whom she said accused her of being a terrorist.