French nursery school teacher admits he made up story about ISIS stabbing

French prosecutors are trying to figure out why a nursery school teacher lied about being stabbed by ISIS — (Image credit: Jacques Demarthon/AFP/Getty Images)

On Monday, French police and security forces rushed to the Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers after a male nursery school teacher said that he had been stabbed in the neck and abdomen by a masked man yelling that the attack "was for Daesh," another word for the Islamic States. The 45-year-old teacher, recovering in the hospital, admitted to prosecutors that he made the story up, CNN reports, and now investigators are trying to determine why. It's not clear how the teacher was injured.

Aubervilliers Mayor Pascal Beaudet told the newspaper Le Parisien that the teacher had taught in local schools for 20 years and that the guard at the Jean-Perrin nursery did not see an attacker. France is still under a state of emergency declared after ISIS-affiliated gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.