Uruguayan Jew stabbed to death by a man shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’

A Jewish community leader in Uruguay has been stabbed to death by a man shouting “Allahu Akbar,” in an attack which has shaken the country’s 15,000 Jews.

Activist and businessman David Fremd, 55, died on Tuesday after being stabbed in the back ten times outside his office in a frenzied attack which has rocked the quiet South American state. His son was injured in the assault.

According to local reports, the 35-year old attacker had a criminal past, and police are treating the murder as a race-related hate crime.

“There is no evidence that the attack has something to do with an organised group, but is rather an isolated act,” said Sergio Gorzy, president of the Central Committee of the Jewish Community. “The characteristics are conducive to the assumption that this was an anti-Semitic attack, which would be unacceptable for our society.”

Fremd was a director of the small Paysandú Jewish community, which borders Argentina and numbers only about 20 families. Colleagues said he was “much-loved” and had “no quarrels with anyone”.