A nursery teacher in Paris who sent police on a wild goose chase after he falsely claimed to have been stabbed by a masked pro-Isis attacker has been sent to a psychiatric hospital, it has been reported.
The man, who was taken to hospital after claiming to have been stabbed in the neck and side with a box cutter knife and a pair of scissors on Monday morning later, admitted he had made the story up.
Prosecutors said a psychiatric evaluation has found the man’s “judgement had been impaired and that he was not in a fit state to be in custody,” the BBC reports, and further psychiatric assessments will be undertaken.
The 45-year-old teacher will not be returning to the school Paris’s northern suburb of Aubervilliers, AFP reports. He had worked at the school for 20 years.
The teacher had claimed he was attacked in a classroom at the Jean Perrin d’Aubervilliers school at around 7am on Monday morning. He told police the hooded and masked assailant had been an Isis supporter and had shouted: “It is for Daesh, it is a warning.”
He had been taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries as police launched a manhunt for the assailant, who was thought to be on the run armed with the box cutter and a pair of scissors.
Later that day authorities said the teacher’s minor injuries were self-inflicted and he had admitted to fabricating the story.
The false claim came amid high tensions in the city, which is still under a state of emergency following the 13 November attacks carried out by Islamic State terrorists in which 130 people were brutally killed.
