Dozens of Jewish gravestones desecrated with swastikas near Strasbourg

Attack on cemetery was discovered just hours before Islamic terrorist opened fire killing three people at Christmas market in city

Local deputy mayor Jacques Kistler attends a ceremony to denounce the vandalism (AP)

Dozens of gravestones and a monument to the holocaust have been desecrated with swastikas and other antisemitic signs at a Jewish cemetery near Strasbourg.

The graffiti – which also included “heil Hitler” – was discovered just hours before an Islamist terrorist shot dead three people at a Christmas market in the French city on Tuesday.

The two incidents have not been linked.

The vandalism at the Herrlisheim cemetery – in which 37 graves were targeted – is the fourth time in just two months that far-right symbols have appeared in the Alsace region, according to the Times of Israel.

It came shortly after police in France revealed they had registered a 69 per cent rise in the number of antisemitic crimes in the first nine months of 2018 compared with the same period last year.

A ceremony has since been held at the cemetery to denounce the vandalism and remember Holocaust victims.

It was attended by interior minister Christophe Castaner.

Cherif Chekatt, the suspect behind the Christmas market terror attack, was shot dead by police on Thursday.