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File photo: French police remain on high alert after the Paris terror attacks. Jacques Brinon/AP/Press Association Images
Paris
Teacher who claimed he was stabbed by Isis supporter invented story
Local officials say he is now being questioned.
Updated: 4.25pm
A FRENCH NURSERY teacher who claimed today that he was stabbed in his classroom by an Islamic State supporter has admitted to prosecutors that he invented the story.
The 45-year-old teacher at a school in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, was hospitalised with light stab wounds in his side and throat.
He had earlier claimed that a man in overalls and a balaclava had arrived while he was preparing for his class this morning, grabbed a box cutter and scissors that were in the room, and attacked him.
The teacher further claimed that the man shouted: “This is Daesh. This is a warning.” Daesh is another name for IS.
Prosecutors said they were still questioning the teacher, whose injuries were not considered life-threatening, over why he lied.
High alert
With France on edge a month on from attacks in Paris, and with the IS calling for attacks on French schools, the investigation had been immediately taken over by anti-terrorism prosecutors.
The case even prompted a visit by Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who vowed to boost security at France’s schools.
The Islamic State’s French-language magazine Dar-al-Islam called in its November edition for its followers to kill teachers in the French education system, describing them as “enemies of Allah”.
“This education, in the case of France in particular, is a means of propaganda used to impose the corrupt way of thought established by the Judeo-masonry,” it said.
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