Five French teenagers were taken into custody Monday for allegedly desecrating a Jewish cemetery over the weekend in what officials called a "vile, anti-Semitic attack."
The male suspects, all between ages 15 and 17, are accused of overturning hundreds of tombstones and defacing them with Nazi symbols like swastikas at the cemetery in the eastern French town of Sarre-Union, NBC News reported. They were taken in for questioning on Monday after one of the 15-year-olds turned himself in.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the mass desecration, one of a string of incidents perceived against Jews, a "vile, anti-Semitic act" that is "an insult to memory."
Officials believe the damage to the cemetery in the Alsace region was done last Thursday, however it wasn't until Sunday when the 250 overturned headstones and uprooted columns were discovered, according to CNN.
As investigators determine the suspects' motive, they could be charged with "desecration of graves" and "degradation committed as a group," the office of local Prosecutor Philippe Vannnier told NBC News.
One of the teens told police they thought the cemetery was abandoned and did not know the graves were Jewish until after the vandalism began, CNN reported.
Alsace region President Philippe Richert said the act was deliberate.
"One doesn't knock over heavy steles like that dating from the 19th century very easily. It was a deliberate act of destruction," Richert told AFP.
The incident comes less than a month after the words "Jews for slaughter"' appeared on a fence outside one of Poland's largest cemeteries, CNN reported.
And the very same Sarre-Union graveyard was attacked before. Nearly 60 headstones were desecrated in 1988, according to AFP. Another 54 were damaged in 2001.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday any European Jews seeking refuge from anti-Semitism are welcome to emigrate to the Jewish nation.
