Rioters rammed a car into the home of a mayor in southern Paris before setting it on fire while his wife and children were sleeping.

Protesters chased Melanie Nowak and her two children behind the house and into the garden as the family tried to escape, in the latest example of fierce violence gripping France.

The mother suffered a serious leg fracture after trying to push her children over the wall that separates her garden from her neighbour’s backyard and was recovering in hospital on Sunday morning. One of the children was also injured.

Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, a suburb south of Paris, said the attack on his family was an “assassination attempt”.

“Last night, a milestone was reached in horror and ignominy,” said Mr Jeanbrun, who is also the spokesman for the conservative Republican party.