French Jewish teacher arrested for lying over IS attack

A Jewish teacher in France who claimed he was attacked by Islamic State jihadists is taken into custody, 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 November, saying he had been beaten by three men claiming to represent the jihadist group.

But a police source confirms that the man is under arrest for allegedly fabricating the story. 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.

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

— AFP