PARIS • A teacher who claimed he was assaulted in a school north of Paris by a man acting for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was making the story up, the Paris prosecutor's office said yesterday.

"He is being interviewed with a view to establishing the reasons for this invented story," an official said.

The 45-year-old man had earlier told police he was attacked by a man dressed in overalls and a balaclava while preparing for his class at a school in Aubervilliers, north- east of Paris.

He claimed that the assailant arrived without a weapon, but grabbed what appeared to be a box cutter that was lying in the classroom, as well as a pair of scissors, which he used to stab the teacher in the side and throat.

According to local prosecutors, the teacher claimed that the man shouted, "This is Daesh. This is a warning", using another name for ISIS.

The teacher said the attacker fled after stabbing him.

After initial reports, the case was being probed by anti-terrorist investigators. The teacher's wounds were not life-threatening, the police said.

The teacher's story was given credibility by ISIS' French-language magazine, Dar Al-Islam, which in its edition last month called for its followers to kill teachers in the French education system, describing them as "enemies of Allah" and being "in open war against the Muslim family".

"Muslims must know the French education system is built against religion, and Islam, as the only religion of truth, cannot cohabit with this fanatic secularism," it said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS