Teacher attacked in #Paris suburb by man citing ISIL

A preschool teacher who claimed to have been attacked by a masked assailant invoking Islamic State made up the story, French prosecutors said Monday. Daesh is another name for the Islamic State group, aka ISIS.

A French judiciary official said the man claimed to be acting for Isis when he attacked the teacher with a knife as he prepared for classes.

The primary teacher was reported to have been slashed in the throat in front of the Jean Perrin d’Aubervilliers school in the Northern suburbs of Paris today.

The police officer who told reporters about the hoax – going by anonymity -said that the teacher had fabricated such story in hopes that he would get transferred to another job.

The teacher was treated at a hospital for minor wounds to his side and neck.

Aubervilliers is in the Seine-Saint-Denis department of the Ile-de-France region. The suspect carried out the attack while the teacher was alone in the classroom. He wore something covering his face – described as a ski mask or balaclava – and reportedly found the weapon used in the attack at the school.

The anti-terrorism branch of the Paris prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation from local police and is looking at the incident as an attempted murder.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the French education minister, said authorities closed the preschool in response to the reported attack, but that it would reopen Tuesday.

In a recent French-language publication, ISIL denounced France’s state school system and urged readers to kill its teachers because they promoted what it called the evils of secular learning, music and drawing. “We will continue to tighten security because, yes, schools feel that they are under threat”.

Last month’s attacks by IS in Paris, that left 130 dead, saw France impose a three-month state of emergency and led to a Europe-wide manhunt for suspects.