A gay rights activist, 18, was proclaimed dead after a brutal attack in France today (6 June).

Clement Méric, a student in Paris, was ‘violently attacked’ by a group of three male skinheads and one woman and left brain dead near Saint-Lazare train station last night (5 June).

He was taken to Pitié-SalpÃªtriÃ¨re Hospital in Paris in a state of brain death, where he died later that night.

Four suspects, aged 20 to 37 and believed to have links to extreme right movements, were arrested.

An avid anti-fascist protester, he has rallied against anti-gay violence and marriage equality which was passed into law last month. His savage murder has provoked horrified reactions across France.

A vigil and a rally against violence in honor of Méric will take place in Paris tonight (6 June).

As The Local reports, a number of eyewitness reports as well as a police source quoted by TFI television indicate a group of left-wing activists had gone clothes shopping on Wednesday evening in Paris.

When the skinheads entered the same shop in the 9th district of Paris, there was an argument between the two groups.

As Méric left the store he was hit by man wearing what appeared to be knuckle-dusters, according to initial reports.

In a statement, the Parti de Gauche (Left Party) said the ‘horror of fascism has just killed right in the middle of Paris’.

Leader Jean-Luc Mélénchon has called on the far-right groups to be disbanded who have ‘committed numerous acts of violence in Paris and across the country’ in the last few weeks.

Serge Ayoub, the nicknamed ‘Batskin’ leader of the Jeune Nationaliste Revolunnaire (JNR – Revolutionary Nationalist Youth), a neo-Nazi skinhead group, has denied involvement in the attack.

‘That’s absolutely false,’ he said.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, called the attack on the young student repulsive and detestable but said groups such as the JNR had no ties with her party.

When asked by RTL radio why one of the attackers was seen wearing a top with her party’s logo, she reacted angrily.

‘Making this kind of association is scandalous, I’d like to know very much who this witness is,’ Le Pen said. ‘You have no proof at all.’

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls has vowed to ‘eradicate this kind of violence, which bears the mark of the extreme right.’

In a statement, liberal party Europe Ã‰cologie Les Verts (Europe Ecology-Greens) said: ‘It is high time that those who have recently spoke of hate speech and violence are thinking about the consequences on the disturbed minds of violent fanatics.’

After the attack, images emerged of Méric marching against anti-gay violence on 17 April. The banner he held read: ‘Homophobia Kills’.