A teacher at a Jewish school in the French city of Marseille was harassed in the street and then stabbed on Wednesday night by three people professing support for Islamic State, prosecutors said.

Three people on two scooters, one of them wearing an Isis T-shirt, approached the teacher and showed him a picture on a mobile phone of Mohamed Merah, a homegrown Islamist militant who killed seven people in a series of attacks in southern France in 2012.

Marseille 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.”

The 57-year-old victim, who was wearing a kippa, was attacked about 8pm outside his home, a short distance from the school and synagogue complex, a source close to the investigation said.

Tensions are high in France, which has been in a state of emergency since gunmen and suicide bombers killed 129 people in a series of attacks, claimed by Islamic State, in Paris last Friday.

The teacher, who escaped serious injury, was taken to hospital as officers searched for the attackers.

The UEJF Jewish students’ union condemned the attack and urged police to use all means to catch the assailants. It said the victim, a history and geography teacher, had received three knife wounds.

The stabbing comes several weeks after a knife attack on a rabbi in the southern French city, the country’s second biggest.

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.”

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report