A primary school teacher was beaten outside his classroom by two young men who called him a racist after seeing the man rebuke a child of non-European origin.

The teacher was violently attacked near the entrance of his school while walking back from Marais Stadium, in Argenteuil in Val-d’Oise, with his pupils after a PE class.

After Paul Langevin reprimanded one of the children in his class on Monday who was being disruptive and using bad language, two young men jumped out of their car screaming “Don’t you talk to her like that, racist”, at the 50 year old.

Mr. Langevin protested: “But I am their master”, using the word maître, which also means ‘primary school teacher’ in French. One of the men replied: “And I am a thug” as the other knocked him to the ground from behind. Both assailants then beat the teacher.

As they ran from the scene one of the young men shouted: “There’s only one master and it is Allah.”

Mayor of Argenteuil, George Mothron, denounced the “totally unprovoked attack” on Mr. Langevin, who had to be taken to hospital following the incident.

There have been several attacks on teachers in recent days, against a backdrop of growing concern over attacks on public servants in France. At a vocational school in Calais on Friday a teacher was left with a broken jaw and several missing teeth after a student punched him in the face during class.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls took to Twitter to condemn the trend. He wrote, “Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-d’Oise: The state will continue unabated [to pursue] those who attack our teachers, our schools, and our law enforcement.”

Hundreds of police officers held an unauthorised demonstration in central Paris on Tuesday to protest rising violence against the police and forced overtime amid more than 18 months of France being in a state of heightened security due to the Islamist terror threat.