French Teacher Made Up ISIS Stabbing Story

The teacher had claimed the raider attacked him with a box cutter and scissors found in the classroom and said: “This is Daesh (IS), it’s a warning”. It’s not clear how he was injured. Le Monde reported that an anti-terrorism investigation had been opened (link in French) into the Aubervilliers incident.

The teacher who said he was stabbed by an ISIS militant at the Jean Perrin preschool, confessed he fabricated the story. “They don’t necessarily think there will be an organised attack, but they fear this message of murderous madness will inspire unstable people to action”, she said. A manhunt for the suspect was launched.

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

The 45-year-old teacher at a school in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, was hospitalized with light stab wounds in his side and throat. In response, President Francois Hollande vowed to destroy the terror group and intensified an global military campaign against ISIS territory in Syria and Iraq, sending French warplanes to pound ISIS targets in the terror group’s northern Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.

A hooded man claiming to be acting for Islamic State attacked a nursery school teacher with a knife-like weapon as he prepared for classes in a school north of Paris, French officials said on Monday.

The brief exchange was reported by a witness working inside the school. No children were present at the time, and classes were canceled. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

Before it was revealed to be a made-up story, the attack appeared to be inspired by a call to target French public schools from the Islamic State’s French-language propaganda magazine last month.