Jewish organisations have expressed “deep concern” for the community in France following the murder of a Holocaust survivor in her Paris apartment.

A court investigation is underway after the body of 85-year old Mireille Knoll was discovered over the weekend.

Police found she had been stabbed at least eleven times before being set alight.

The case is being treated as a murder motivated by antisemitism.

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), said Ms Knoll had previously reported a neighbour of hers to the police for threatening to “burn her”.

Two suspects are understood to be in custody.

The crime was described by Jewish organisations as reminiscent of the murder of 66-year-old Sarah Halimi last April.

A spokesperson for Crif, the umbrella organisation for French Jewish groups, expressed the “deep concern of the Jewish population of France”.

“The inhumanity of this murder sends us back to that of Sarah Halimi just one year ago,” the statement said, adding that the organisation had been in touch with the Office of the President of France and the Prefect of police.

“The President of Crif, Francis Kalifat, spoke for a long time with the children of the victim, and expressed the condolences of the Jewish community and of himself.

“Crif expects total transparency in the current investigation, so that the motives for this barbaric crime are made known as soon as possible.”

Kobili Traore, 28, is accused of murdering his Orthodox Jewish neighbour Lucette Attal-Halimi, known by her Hebrew name Sarah Halimi.

Authorities initially refused to classify the attack that led to her death as religiously motivated, provoking outrage from Jewish groups and a legal challenge from the victim’s family.

But a judge ruled last month that Halimi’s murder was an antisemitic attack.