paris supermarket siege
Police at the scene of the hostage-taking at a Jewish store in Paris  Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Thousands of Jews are expected to flee France in the wake of the Paris attacks which left 17 dead, one of Britain's leading Jewish journalists has claimed.

Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, tweeted a rhetorical question, asking if it was a "fluke" that a terrorist chose to target a Kosher store in the capital last week.

Amedy Coulibaly took six people hostage in the Jewish supermarket in Porte de Vincennes before killing four of the shoppers. Coulibaly had previously killed policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe, 25.

Pollard said experts are predicting the Jewish population in France of 550,000 - the largest in Europe - will fall by 100,000 within the next few years.

"That figure is thought by some to be too optimistic. Anecdotally, every French Jew I know has either already left or is working out how to leave." he said

He stated even before last week's events the number of Jewish people expected to flee to Israel was estimated to be over 10,000 this year. This does not take into account those planning to move to Britain.

Pollard said attacks on Jews in France had risen sevenfold since the 1990s and that there were more violent anti-Semitic incidents in 2013 in France than any other nation in the world.

In May last year, French jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old of Franco-Algerian origin killed four people as he opened fire at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels.

This was then followed by a wave of violent anti-Semitic incidents during the summer in response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Last summer Haim Korsia, Chief Rabbi of France, warned about the mass exodus of Jews leaving France for the UK and other countries.

He said: "Jews have been killed and there were the shootings in Toulouse and in Brussels. In general, Jews feel vulnerable in our society.

"The Jews who were murdered were targeted specifically because they were Jewish.

"This means France hasn't found the words and actions necessary to reassure them."

In 2012 four Jews, including three children and three soldiers, were shot dead in Toulouse by 23-year-old French Islamist Mohamed Merah.