Sunday, March 25, 2018 at 5:47 pm |

The body of a Jewish octogenarian, stabbed and burned, was found over the weekend in her Paris apartment, in a shocking crime reminiscent of the April 2017 murder of another Jewish woman in the same city.

A report from the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), cited by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said that the murder of the 85-year-old woman, a Holocaust survivor who has been identified only as Mireille K., “is reminiscent of the crime committed against Sarah Halimi.”

Halimi, a 66-year-old Orthodox Jewish teacher, was beaten and pushed out of a window of her home in April 2017. Neighbors heard the assailant reciting verses from the Koran and shouting anti-Semitic slurs. Kada Traore, a 27-year-old Muslim immigrant from Mali who lived in Halimi’s building, has been arrested for the crime.

The BNVCA says that Mireille K.’s body, which had been stabbed at least 11 times, was set on fire Friday night. A forensic examination revealed that fires were set in at least five separate places in the apartment.

She had reported to police in the past that a man who lived on her block, Philippe August Street in Paris’ 11th District, had threatened to burn her.

An unnamed suspect is in custody for the crime.

There has recently been a significant uptick in violent anti-Semitic attacks in Paris, largely carried out by Muslims.