A well-known Parisian restaurant has been commended by Jewish groups after suspending employees who were photographed making an antisemitic salute.

Le Train Bleu, a restaurant in the French capital’s Gare de Lyon train station, announced a dozen staff members were suspended after a photograph cicrculated on social media last week of them performing the quenelle, the inverted Nazi salute popularised by antisemitic French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala.

The French subsidiary of SSP, a British company which owns the restaurant, said “those who have made this gesture in the form of an inverted Nazi salute… have violated the values of the company.

“We cannot ignore [the gesture’s] gravity or proven antisemitic meaning.”

Both the French Jewish umbrella body Crif and the World Jewish Congress expressed “appreciation for the management's decision to suspend all those involved and to launch an investigation.”

The French bureau of the American Jewish Congress echoed the view, praising the owners of the restaurant who “have chosen to act contrary to their employees.”

Although some of those performing the quenelle claim it is a symbol of anti-authoritarianism, its popularisation by M'bala M'bala — who has been convicted for hate speech attacking Jews — and its use by antisemites outside synagogues and Holocaust memorials have led to its meaning becoming unambiguous.

In 2014, the UK's Football Association fined French player Nicholas Anelka £80,000 and gave him a five match ban after he performed the salute during a goalscoring celebration.