French Teacher Attacked by Man Claiming IS Link

PARIS (Reuters) —

A hooded man claiming to be acting for the Islamic State terror group attacked a nursery school teacher with a knife as he prepared for classes in a school north of Paris, a French judiciary official said on Monday.

The male teacher was taken to the hospital at about 8:30 local time after the attack by a man wielding a knife or box-cutter, who fled the scene after the attack, said the official, adding that antiterrorism officials were investigating.

According to one judiciary official, the terrorist slashed at the teacher’s neck and said the act was a signal from the Islamic State group, also referred to in France by the name Daesh.

“This is Daesh, it’s a warning,” the terrorist told his victim, the official said, adding that the victim’s life was apparently not in danger.

France’s education minister and a local government prefect visited the premises of the school in Aubervilliers, in the Saint-Denis region just north of the capital. Classes at the school were canceled.

The prefect, who was not introduced by name, told reporters it was too early to draw conclusions about the character of the attack, noting that the terrorist, wearing a balaclava, had apparently found the weapon at the school premises.

The incident came a month after terrorists and suicide bombers killed 130 people in Paris, an attack claimed by Islamic State, which controls swaths of Syria and Iraq and has vowed to attack France, a member of the coalition of countries conducting air strikes against it.

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