A Jewish man was stabbed to death on Tuesday night in Uruguay by a man who shouted “Allahu Akbar”, local media reported.
According to reports, the incident occurred in the town of Paysandu in western Uruguay. The Jewish man, who was stabbed in the back ten times, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, where he died of his wounds shortly after.
The perpetrator, who reportedly is known to local police and has a criminal background, was caught and taken in for questioning. The motive for the stabbing is not yet clear, but local police are investigating whether it was an anti-Semitic attack.
Uruguay has not been in the headlines for anti-Semitic attacks in recent years, but last summer an Uruguayan army bomb squad dismantled an “incomplete” explosive device in front of an office tower housing the Israeli embassy.
Last January, authorities in Uruguay detonated what turned out to be a fake bomb found near the Israeli embassy.
The convincing-looking fake – complete with fuse, detonator and other elements found in a real bomb – was detected some 70 meters (230 feet) from the building by bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling the area with their Republican Guard handlers.
Uruguay later expelled a senior Iranian diplomat the planting of the dummy bomb.
