French police are investigating antisemitic graffiti daubed on an apartment block in central Paris, with prominent politicians condemning the “despicable act” and calling for the perpetrators to be “severely punished.”

The front door of the apartment building, on the Rue Ordener in the capital’s 18^th arrondissement, was defaced in the early hours of Thursday morning.

On the left side of the door, vandals wrote “Jewish garbage lives here”.

The graffiti on the right side adds the words “especially on the third floor” alongside with a symbol described as either a gun target or a Celtic cross, a symbol sometimes used by far-right groups.

Pictures of the graffiti circulated widely on social media; the local council removed the daubings by the end of the day.

Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, tweeted: “In the aftermath of the disappearance of the great Marcellin Loridan-Ivens [a French Holocaust survivor who died earlier this week], this despicable act reminds us that antisemitism still persists, right here, in the very heart of Paris.

“Let us all be mobilized to fight it. My determination [to do so] is total. All my support for the Jewish community.”

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the left-wing party France Unbowed, described the graffiti as an “unbearable antisemitic street tag. Full solidarity with the inhabitants of the building. Thugs guilty of such acts must be found and severely punished.”

Crif, an umbrella body for Jewish organisations in France, said: “We are in 2018 and antisemitism is still hitting our doors in the middle of Paris.

“Crif again condemns these acts of vandalism which endanger France as a whole and hopes that the perpetrators will be found and punished.”