Vandals have daubed swastikas on 37 tombstones – as well as a monument to Holocaust victims – at a Jewish cemetery near Strasbourg, in France.

Authorities in Herrlisheim, a town 12 miles from Strasbourg, are yet to announce whether there any suspects, as France’s interior minister declared that the “entire Republic is sullied” by the attack, the New York Times reports.

Following a visit to the cemetery, Christophe Castaner, said: "Everything is being done to identify and detain the authors of this desecration.”

The vandalism of the cemetery is believed to have happened overnight on  December 10, hours before an attack on a Strasbourg Christmas market which left five people dead.

The suspected attacker, Chérif Chekatt, was killed by police on Thursday night following a two-day manhunt for the 29-year-old by 700 members of the French security forces.

France has also suffered five consecutive weeks of unrest, as gilets jaunes protests against Emmanuel Macron’s government continue to rock the country.

Herrlisheim has been home to a Jewish community since 1349, although the overall Jewish population has been fewer than 100 people since the German occupation during the Second World War.

Its Jewish cemetery has been the target of a number of graffiti attacks, including on the anniversary of Hitler’s death in 2004.

Antisemitic attacks in France have been on the rise in recent years.

Last month, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said that incidents in the first nine months of 2018 represented a 69 per cent rise on year on year.

Harold Weill, chief rabbi of the Bas-Rhin region, said that France's Jewish community “loves this country, it cherishes it, but it is asking itself questions”.