MOULINS, France, May 11 (AFP) - Vandals daubed swastikas overnight on the town hall in the central French town of Vichy, seat of the country's World War II collaborationist government, court sources said Tuesday.

City officials quickly wiped away about a dozen swastikas that were painted on the building's facade and doors, the mayor's chief of staff Christine Assalet told AFP.

A preliminary inquiry was opened in the matter.

France has been plagued in recent weeks by a rash of anti-Semitic attacks, including the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Alsace, where swastikas and sayings glorifying Adolf Hitler were scrawled across more than 120 graves.

After the occupation of France by Nazi Germany in 1940, Marshall Henri
Philippe Petain ran the collaborationist government from Vichy until 1944. The Vichy regime deported some 70,000 Jews to Germany.

©AFP

Subject: French news