Paris: Masked Man Attacks French Teacher, Yells Support For ISIS [Updated]

Update: According to fresh reports, the preschool teacher who claimed to have been attacked by an ISIS supporter had made up the story. The attack which supposedly happened earlier on Monday morning is now thought to be an elaborate hoax, The New York Times reports. Following the attack, the French police had started a manhunt for the ‘suspect’ who had pledged allegiance to the ISIS and claimed he would undertake more attacks. As of Monday afternoon, the school teacher is being questioned by officials from the Paris prosecutor’s office as well as a local prosecutor. It is unclear as to why the teacher made up the story. Authorities have not released the name of the school teacher who they say is a 45-year-old male. It is also unclear if authorities would press charges against the teacher for fabricating a hoax.

Original Report:

In yet another terror related incident in Paris, police are on the lookout for an unidentified individual who stabbed a teacher with a box cutter on Monday. According to a CNN report, the incident happened near the Jean Perrin d’Aubervilliers school located in the northern suburbs of Paris. There were no students in the vicinity at the time of the attack. What makes the attack even more chilling is the fact that the attacker reportedly talked about his allegiance to ISIS before fleeing away from the scene. He is reportedly believed to have said “That’s for Daesh, this is a warning” local French media reports. The reports also add that the unidentified man was wearing a balaclava at the time of the attack.

The victim of the attack was a 45-year-old teacher who has not been identified yet. Initial reports say he was not grievously injured in the attack. He has been shifted to a nearby hospital where his condition is said to be stable.

Meanwhile, French counter-terrorism authorities have started an investigation and is already treating the incident as an “attempted murder in relation to terrorism,” reports said.

The attack is reminiscent of a similar attack carried out last month by ISIS supporters on a Jewish teacher from Marseilles. The attack also comes just a month after the deadliest terror attack ever in Paris in which over 130 people were killed on November 13. The Islamic State had claimed complete responsibility for the attack.

There has been several attacks on French teachers ever since ISIS had openly called out for attacks on teachers in its French propaganda magazine Dar al Islam. ISIS had also asked Muslim families to pull their children out from “secular” schools.

“France has charged its schools with teaching Republican values, but these values are nothing but a web of lies and blasphemy,” the ISIS magazine said.

More recently, French authorities had ordered the shutdown of three mosques in Paris after French police seized 330 war-grade weapons and 7.62mm ammunition for Kalashnikov rifles. They also recovered several Islamic State propaganda videos from there.

A month after the deadly terror attacks, France is still in a state of emergency. Following the attacks, French President Francois Hollande vowed to destroy the terror group and intensified the military campaign against ISIS. Several French warplanes targeted the ISIS headquarter town of Raqqa in Northern Syria days after the attack. The French officials were also able to kill the perpetrators of the attack – including ISIS mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud days after the attack.

It is believed that the ISIS leader forged a fake passport to make it into France. He is also believed to have planned several other terrorist attacks in the country – including a failed assault on a French train a few months ago.

[Image Via AP Photo/Michel Euler]