A French nursery school teacher who claimed on Monday that he was stabbed in his classroom by an Islamic State supporter has admitted to prosecutors that he invented the story.
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The teacher explained the masked attacker, armed with a box cutter and scissors claimed to be acting on behalf of Islamic State.
The teacher’s wounds were not life-threatening but he was still in the hospital, Thibault-Lecuivre said, before it was revealed that the attack appeared to be a hoax. The attack follows the tragic events in Paris last month that saw 134 killed in coordinated shootings and suicide bombings across the city.
The teacher also claimed that the man shouted: “This is Daesh”.
Local officials said that the 45-year-old teacher, who had worked at the school for 20 years, was being questioned by police.
A teacher who claimed to have been stabbed by a masked man at a kindergarten on Monday “made up the attack”, the Paris prosecutor’s office told CNN.
“With the Interior Ministry, we are going to continue to reinforce security measures, in a context where, yes, schools feel under threat”, French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said Monday in front of the school. A few weeks later, IS urged its followers to attack teachers in France, saying the secular education system was poisoning young minds. Le Monde reported that an anti-terrorism investigation had been opened (link in French) into the Aubervilliers incident. It was reported that the “attacker” arrived wearing a balaclava and gloves but was unarmed and used weapons he found in the classroom.
The victim was stabbed several times outside the school about 7am before classes were due to start, The Mirror reports.
French police are now conducting a manhunt for the suspect in the region surrounding Aubervilliers, the news outlet added.
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She said she saw the attack as “an act of major gravity”.
