Fridae

The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano�, a Socialist, was recovering from a minor surgery in hospital yesterday after being stabbed by a homophobe at an all-night party at City Hall. Although his injury was not life threatening, he is expected to spend at least a week in hospital.

According to the BBC News, Mr Delanoe, who is openly gay, was greeting visitors at the party at City Hall early on Sunday when the 39-year-old attacker stabbed him in the stomach at 2:30am local time.

"The mayor was walking quietly in the Hotel de Ville's reception room when a man threw himself on him without saying anything and stabbed him in the stomach with a knife," the mayor's aide, Anne-Sylvie Schneider, told the French news agency AFP.

The attacker, Azedine Berkane, who is known to police for drug offences, was immediately taken into cutody while the mayor was given first aid.

Berkane, a computer technician who lives in a suburb north of Paris, later told police that he "didn't like politicians and particularly didn't like homosexuals". He also reportedly told investigators that he was a devout Muslim.

Police have however said the suspect is not linked to any militant group and had received psychiatric treatment in the past.

Dubbed "All-nighter" or "Nuit Blanche" in French, the 12-hour fiesta is the first big cultural fest put on by the mayor who has been in office for about 18 months and who revolutionised life in the city this summer by laying out sand, palm trees and deck-chairs along the riverfront of the Seine.

Dozens of tourist attractions, including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, were free of charge all night, and free concerts and exhibitions were being held around the French capital.

The mayor had opened the central city hall, his official residence on the right bank of the Seine, as part of Nuit Blanche, an inaugural Paris-wide festival during which many of the capital's cultural landmarks were open until dawn for concerts and shows.

He has opened up the mayor's private apartments to the public, preferring to live in a small private flat across the river. As usual, he was without a bodyguard on the night of his attack.

"I want Paris to take risks," said Mr Delano� when he opened the festival on Saturday night. "Otherwise, how is it going to become an international city to attract lovers of freedom and pleasure?"