PARIS, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Paris police were under orders by President Jacque Chirac Monday to hunt down neo-Nazis who torched a Jewish community center, the New York Times reported.
No one was injured in the early Sunday fire that was set in the ground floor of a five-story building. Investigators also found swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans spray-painted on the walls of the center, which prepares kosher food for impoverished Jews.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin visited the scene Sunday. Delanoe said he felt "shock and horror."
Statistics from the French Interior Ministry indicate there have been 135 acts of physical violence against Jews so far this year and 95 against Arabs and other ethnic groups, although there are nearly 10 times as many Arabs as Jews in France.
In the past year, France has toughened punishments for racist crimes.
