PARIS (AP) — French authorities are investigating an assault on an 8-year-old boy wearing a Jewish skullcap in a Paris suburb, which President Emmanuel Macron denounced as "heinous."

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in a statement late Tuesday that investigators suspect the incident Monday in the town of Sarcelles was motivated by anti-Semitism. Collomb said police are doing "everything" to identify the perpetrators, described by French media as teenagers who ran away after tripping and kicking the boy.

Macron tweeted: "Each time a citizen is attacked because of his age, appearance or religion, it is the whole nation that is attacked."

Collomb and Jewish leaders have said the number of anti-Semitic acts in France has risen this month after a drop in previous years.