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A French soldier was taken to hospital after he was attacked by three men in the southern city of Marseille.

The soldier was wearing civilian clothes when the attack occurred as he returned to a military base.

Three people travelling in a car stopped and assaulted the man, leaving him with injuries that were not considered serious.

The incident occurred just hours after soldiers guarding Paris' Louvre museum were attacked by a machete-wielding man in what French President Francois Hollande called a terrorist attack.

In Friday's incident the soldier was struck in the face and knocked to the floor, LaProvence.com reported.

The report stated that the attackers fled and were being sought.

The "lightly injured" victim took refuge at the military base in Sainte-Marthe and was taken to hospital for treatment.

No weapons were involved.

On Friday morning soldiers shot and wounded a 29-year-old Egyptian man who allegedly attacked them with a machete and shouted "Allahu Akbar".

The Paris prosecutor's office said Abdullah Reda al-Hamamy was no longer in a critical condition in hospital.

(Image: Twitter) (Image: Twitter)

Al-Hamamy's father, Reda Al Refaai, insisted that his son is not a terrorist and was the victim of "cover up" by the French government.

He claimed that France was calling it a terror attack to excuse the level of force employed to stop his son.

Soldiers were patrolling the Louvre as part of France's on-going state of emergency, which is in effect following a series of terror attacks.