French teacher arrested for lying over Islamic State attack

The 45-year-old in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, initially said a man had burst into his classroom and cut him

MARSEILLE: A Jewish teacher in France who claimed he was attacked by Islamic State extremists was taken into custody on Wednesday, accused of lying to police.

The man invited the press to his house in Marseille in southern France the day after the supposed attack in December, saying he had been beaten by three men claiming to represent the extremist group.

But a police source confirmed on Wednesday that the man had been arrested for allegedly fabricating the story.



He is not the only French teacher to be accused of lying about an Islamic State attack. In January, a nursery school teacher was sent for psychiatric tests after admitting he lied about an attack in his classroom.

The 45-year-old man in Aubervilliers, northeast of Paris, initially said a man had burst into his classroom and cut him with a box cutter and scissors.

But he later admitted inventing the story and cutting himself on the neck and side.

The cases came with France still on edge in the wake of the November attacks in Paris, claimed by Islamic State, that killed 130 people.

There is no doubt over another attack in Marseille in January, when a teacher wearing a kippa, a Jewish skullcap, was set upon by a self-radicalised teenager - the latest in a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the port city.