A Moroccan man in France was brutally stabbed to death by a neighbour in front of his wife in what is described as a 'horrible Islamophobic attack'.
Mohamed El Makouli was attacked after a 28-year-old man burst into his home in the early hours of Wednesday morning, it has been reported.
His 31-year-old wife, Nadia, suffered wounds to her hands as she tried to save her husband before she fled their home in the quiet village of Beaucet, near Avignon, with their child to alert the police.
The attacker forced himself through the front door shouting 'I am your god, I am your Islam', before repeatedly stabbing Mr El Makouli, the National Observatory Against Islamophobia said yesterday.
He later returned with another knife and attacked the 47-year-old again, this time killing him. An autopsy revealed Mr El Makouli had been stabbed 17 times.
The attacker, who has been charged with 'murder, attempted murder and possession of drugs', is reported to have been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He has been committed to a psychiatric hospital.
It comes just a week after jihadi terrorists stormed the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris and killed 12 people, including the editor.
A total of 17 people lost their lives in a spree of shootings in the French capital.
Abdallah Zakri, president of the Observatory, condemned the killing in Beaucet as 'a horribly Islamophobic attack'.
And the regional Muslim council said it feared the climate of suspicion and hostility after the terror strikes in Paris last week were having an effect on the 'most fragile of our fellow citizens'.
Police in Avignon said claims of Islamophobia would be investigated once they started questioning the attacker.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said yesterday the French government was going to tighten laws against racism and anti-Semitism.
She added she wants to give the authorities powers to block Internet hate sites 'as already happens with ones that carry child pornography'.
More than 50 anti-Muslim incidents, including attacks on mosques, have been recorded by the Central Council of Muslims in France since the shootings in Paris last week.
A source close to the murder investigation said he did not think it was 'a purely Islamophobic act,' but admitted the events of the past week could have 'stirred up fear and a rise in adrenaline'.
He said the alleged attacker was in an incoherent state when he was arrested near the scene.
Khaled Idris Bahray, 20, an Eritrean-born Muslim, was found dead in the early hours of Tuesday, Dresden prosecution office has said.
His body was discovered the day after 40,000 people joined a weekly march organised by an organisation called 'Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West' (PEGIDA).
And on Friday, security was dramatically stepped up for police officers and the Jewish community in Britain amid fears of a terror attack.
Intelligence chiefs are worried that Islamist fanatics could try to copy the atrocities in France last week.
Fears of similar carnage in the UK intensified on Thursday after commandos in Belgium killed Islamic State fanatics who wanted to behead a policeman or a judge.
The plot held chilling echoes of the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby outside his barracks in Woolwich.
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