UPDATE 1:42 P.M.: This post has been updated to reflect breaking reports that the initial news of a teacher being stabbed by an ISIS supporter was based on a fabrication.
French prosecutors are now saying that a preschool teacher in the Paris suburb of Aubervilliers fabricated a story about being stabbed Monday morning by a man who expressed allegiance to ISIS.
An unnamed police official told the New York Times that the teacher admitted to fabricating the story. The official said that the account "was a fake attempt, done so that he could have himself transferred" to a new job.
The teacher told law enforcement earlier that the attacker stabbed him and yelled, "This is for Daesh [ISIS]. It’s a warning," BBC reported. The culprit allegedly fled the scene after the stabbing and police were searching for him. The anti-terrorism division of the Paris prosecutor’s office was also probing the incident as an act related to terrorism.
According to law enforcement sources, the teacher was allegedly stabbed in the side and the throat at the Jean-Perrin preschool while getting a classroom ready for students. The victim was alone in the classroom, but other staff members were in the building. No students were present at the preschool at the time of the alleged attack.
The attacker was reportedly wearing a balaclava and gloves and used weapons, a box cutter, and scissors he found inside the classroom to stab the teacher.
The preschool, which teaches students ages three to six, subsequently cancelled classes. The teacher, who is 45 years old, was receiving treatment at a hospital.
The incident comes one month after ISIS carried out several coordinated terror attacks in Paris, killing 130 people and wounding over 300 others. Law enforcement officials have increased security at schools in the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks.
Dar-al-Islam, the French-language magazine produced by ISIS, in November called for supporters to kill teachers in France, labeling the educators "enemies of Allah," according to AFP.