‘French teacher who claimed IS attack admits inventing story’

The attacker allegedly claimed he was acting in the name of the brutal jihadi group ISIS and declared the attack was “a warning”.

The teacher’s life is not in danger and is being treated in hospital for multiple stab wounds.

Sometime later he revealed that the entire report was a hoax, leaving authorities to determine not only why he made up the story but also the circumstances behind it. It appears the teacher stabbed himself as part of the fake attack.

Philippe Galli, the top government official for the Seine-Saint-Denis region where the school is located, told reporters earlier that no children were present at the time, only the teacher and other staff members.

The teacher said that the assailant was wearing a balaclava and gloves and that he then fled.

Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, said Monday that French counterterrorism officials are probing the incident.

It is understood they arrived unarmed but used scissors or a box cutter from the classroom in the attack.

The ISIS French-language magazine Dar-al-Islam called in its November edition for its followers to kill teachers in the French education system.

French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem travelled to the school, calling the attack an “act of great gravity” that was “unacceptable”.

Last month s attacks saw France impose a three-month state of emergency, and led to a Europe-wide manhunt for suspects who may have been involved.

With France on edge and with the IS calling for attacks on French schools, the investigation had been immediately taken over by anti-terrorism prosecutors.

The country remains on high alert following the November 13 terror attacks in Paris that left 130 dead, and Rachel Schneider, of the French primary school teachers’ union SNUipp, said many teachers had been alarmed by the threat.