Paris // A French nursery schoolteacher who claimed that he was stabbed in his classroom by an ISIL supporter has admitted to prosecutors that he invented the story.
The 45-year-old teacher at a school in Aubervilliers, north-east of Paris, was taken to hospital with light stab wounds in his side and throat.
He had claimed that a man in overalls and balaclava had arrived while he was preparing for his class yesterday, grabbed a box cutter and scissors that were in the room and attacked him.
The teacher also said that the man shouted: “This is Daesh. This is a warning.”
Prosecutors said they were still questioning the teacher, whose injuries were not considered life threatening, over why he lied.
With France on edge a month on from the ISIL attacks in Paris, and with the extremist group calling for attacks on French schools, the investigation had been immediately taken over by anti-terrorism prosecutors.
The case even prompted a visit by the education minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who vowed to boost security at France’s schools.
“We will continue to reinforce security measures at schools in a context where schools feel threatened,” Ms Vallaud-Belkacem said.
In last month's edition of ISIL's French-language magazine Dar-al-Islam it called on its followers to kill teachers in the French education system, describing them as "enemies of Allah".
France imposed a three-month state of emergency after last month’s attacks by ISIL in Paris, which left 130 dead and led to a Europe-wide manhunt for suspects.
Rachel Schneider of France’s main primary schoolteachers’ union said the ISIL threats had alarmed faculty members.
“We have received many calls from colleagues, who are very worried.
“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.
In March 2012, extremist Mohamed Merah killed three children and a teacher outside a Jewish school in south-west France in attacks that also killed three soldiers.
In Britain, meanwhile, a man arrested days before an annual national war commemoration last year has been convicted of planning an ISIL-inspired knife attack in London.
Nadir Syed, 22, was arrested on November 6 last year, three days before Remembrance Sunday, amid fears that extremists were planning to attack police or soldiers at a war memorial event.
Prosecutors said Syed, a British citizen, was obsessed with beheadings and the killing of British solider Lee Rigby, who was stabbed to death on a London street in 2013 by two British men inspired by Al Qaeda.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
