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The southern French city of Marseille has been forced to scrap a system of yellow triangles intended to help spot homeless people after it was accused of employing Nazi-style tactics.

The cards, which were given to homeless people, detail their health issues and are yellow in order to be easily spotted.

Human rights groups and government ministers criticised the “yellow triangle cards” in France’s second city, saying they are “stigmatising”, and hark back to the Star of David sewn on to Jewish people’s clothes during the Holocaust.

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La Ligue des droits de l’Homme, a human rights group, said it was troubled by the resemblance “of this card and the yellow star that the Jews had to wear during the Second World War”.

Marisol Touraine, the social affairs minister, said: “I’m shocked. Forcing homeless people to carry a yellow triangle indicating the illnesses they might have is outrageous. You don’t point the finger at the poorest.”