A 15-year-old boy who attacked a man wearing a kippah in Marseille, southern France, on Monday is a Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin who said he acted in the name of the Islamic State (IS) terror group, the prosecutor said.

"He claimed to have acted in the name of Allah and the Islamic State, repeating several times to have done on behalf of Daes," he told journalists. He claimed that "the Muslims of France dishonor Islam and the French army protects Jews."

The 15 year-old, who was armed with a machete and a knife, attacked and wounded the Jewish teacher outside of a synagogue before being stopped and arrested.

The victim sustained minor injuries to his back and hand.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called the attack a "brutal anti-semitic aggression."

The incident took place in the ninth arrondissement of Marseille with a large concentration of Jewish residents and Jewish owned shops and restaurants. Some 70,000 Jews live in the port city.