A third shooting has reportedly broken out in eastern Paris. It is reported an armed man has taken a hostage in a kosher grocery in Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris.

French unions and student groups today called a national day of strikes for March 28 to protest a youth jobs plan that has already provoked massive street demonstrations and paralysed many universities.

Arsonists burned a Jewish community centre in eastern Paris before dawn yesterday, leaving behind red graffiti with menacing anti-Semitic messages such as “Jews get out”, police said.

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A 38-year-old Frenchman dubbed ‘‘the killer of eastern Paris’’ was jailed for life today for the rape and murder of seven women.