November 16, 2003	Sunday	Ramazan 20, 1424

PARIS, Nov 15: A fire badly damaged a Jewish school building on the outskirts of Paris on Saturday, with the french interior minister saying it was most likely the result of an anti-Semitic arson attack.

“When a Jewish school is set on fire, it is difficult for me to believe that it is not a matter of anti-Semitism,” said Mr Sarkozy, who arrived at the scene not long after the blaze.

The fire had “obvious racist and anti-Semitic connotations”, he said.

No one was injured in the fire, which gutted a disused factory that had been acquired for expansion by Merkatz Hatorah, the Jewish organization that runs the all-boys secondary school.

A building adjacent to the factory where classes are taught was not affected.

Some 60 firefighters were deployed to stave off the inferno in Gagny, north of Paris.

“There appears to be proof that the fire was an arson attack,” Mr Sarkozy said, specifying that there had been two separate fires on the school premises and “suspicion of breaking and entering” through a window.

In the wake of blasts that rocked two Jewish quarters of Istanbul during Sabbath prayers, the Jewish Liberal Movement of France (MJLF) condemned the arson attack.

The group expressed “disgust” with what it is calling the “black Sabbath”.—AFP