French teacher 'invented' story about Islamist attack
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PARIS - A report from a French schoolteacher that he had been assaulted by a self-styled Islamist militant on Monday, causing classes to be cancelled and an anti-terrorism investigation, turned out to be "invented", investigators said.
"(The teacher) is being interviewed with a view to establishing the reasons for this invented story," said an official from the Paris prosecutor's office.
Earlier on Monday, other French officials told how the teacher had reported that a hooded man claiming a link to Islamic State had assaulted him with a knife-like weapon as he prepared for classes in a school in Saint-Denis, on the northern fringes of Paris.
In recounting the teacher's story earlier, district Prefect Philippe Galli told reporters it was too early to draw conclusions about the character of the attack, noting that the assailant, wearing a balaclava, had apparently found a boxcutter and a pair of scissors on the school premises.
The teacher was taken to hospital after the alleged attack, which triggered an investigation by anti-terrorism officials.
