( CNN ) Five teenagers are in custody after the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Sarre-Union , France , Saverne prosecutor Philippe Vanier said Monday . The minors , all between the ages of 15 and 17 , grew up in the Alsace region of France and have no criminal records . Police took the teens into custody after a 15-year-old turned himself in , saying he had damaged the cemetery with four other teenagers , the prosecutor said . One of the teens denied the attack was anti-Semitic , Vanier said . The teens thought the graveyard was abandoned and did n't notice the graves were Jewish until after they had begun to vandalize them , the prosecutor said , recounting what one of the teens told police . They are charged with desecration of graves and with organized damage on property for the public benefit , Vanier said . They each face a maximum sentence of seven years in prison . Though it was n't noticed until the weekend , it appears the damage occurred late Thursday afternoon . About 250 graves were damaged , with most of the damage consisting of headstones being overturned and columns uprooted . Photos from the cemetery showed gray stone and glossy marble headstones lying on the ground as if they 'd toppled over . `` We express the strongest condemnation of the desecration of hundreds of graves in a Jewish cemetery , '' Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a news release . `` Everything will be put in place to identify , arrest and send to justice the perpetrators of these ignominious acts , '' he said . `` The French Republic wo n't allow another act against our values . '' Calling the site `` an image of desolation , '' Philippe Richert , president of the Alsace region , told Agence France-Presse why he felt the damage was the certain work of vandals : `` One does n't knock over heavy steles like that dating from the 19th century very easily . It was a deliberate act of destruction . '' Prime Minister Manuel Valls sent out a tweet calling the destruction `` a vile , anti-Semitic act , an insult to the memory '' and promised `` everything will be done to find those responsible . '' This is not the first time the Sarre-Union cemetery , located about 30 kilometers ( 20 miles ) south of the German border , has been targeted . In 1988 , about 60 Jewish headstones were knocked over , and 54 grave markers were damaged in 2001 , AFP reported . The vandalism comes within weeks of other Jewish cemeteries being targeted around the world . In Warsaw , Poland , on January 31 , someone wrote `` Jews for slaughter '' on the fence outside one of the continent 's largest Jewish burial grounds , according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency . And in Dunedin , New Zealand , on Saturday , a vandal spray-painted a swastika on a headstone and knocked over two others , breaking them , in the Jewish section of the Southern Cemetery , the New Zealand Herald reported . The cemetery attack in France comes after two high-profile acts of violence against Jews in Europe . Following last month 's attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine , a gunman killed four Jews in a kosher supermarket in Paris . Over the weekend , a gunman attacked a free speech forum in Copenhagen before shooting several people outside a synagogue . CNN 's Laura Akhoun and Margot Haddad contributed to this report .
5 teens in custody ; one says attack not anti-Semitic , prosecutor says . Prosecutor : About 250 headstones were overturned , columns uprooted . This is third time since 1988 cemetery was targeted , according to AFP .