After the vandalization of a mural honoring the 1961 massacre of Algerians in December in France, a sculpture of an Algerian military hero who fought France's colonization of the North African country was also vandalized only hours before it was to be inaugurated on Saturday.

The attack, which occurred amid growing anti-Muslim rhetoric ahead of the French presidential election campaign, damaged the lower portion of the steel sculpture in the town of Amboise, where Emir Abdelkader was imprisoned from 1848 to 1952.

Thierry Boutard, the mayor of Amboise, said he was "ashamed" of those responsible but chose to go forward with the event.

"My second sentiment is, of course, one of indignation. This is a day of harmony and unity and this kind of behavior is unspeakable."

The sculpture of Abdelkader, an Islamic scholar who became a military leader and was hailed as a hero, faces the castle where he was imprisoned across the Loire River.

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The incident is being investigated, according to police.

The sculpture was commissioned to commemorate Algeria's 60th anniversary of independence from the French colonization and was created by modern artist Michel Audiard.

On his account, Algeria's ambassador to France Mohamed Antar Daoud, who joined the inauguration, denounced the attack as an act of "unspeakable baseness".

The vandalism left Ouassila Soum, a 37-year-old French woman of Algerian descent who attended the inauguration, "with a knot in my stomach".

"It's a shame and yet it's not surprising with the rhetoric of hate and the nauseating current atmosphere," she stressed.

Last October, a diplomatic crisis erupted between France and Algeria after French President Emmanuel Macron made several controversial, shocking, and unprecedented statements toward Algeria and its president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.