Paris mom admits subway attack a hoax

PARIS – Just days after claiming to having been the victim of a cruel anti-Semitic attack that stunned France, a young mother confessed she fabricated the story, authorities said Tuesday.

The woman had claimed she was robbed on a suburban train Friday by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body.

Police could find no clues or witnesses and took the woman in for questioning Tuesday.

There was no immediate explanation of the woman’s motives for having made up the story.

Reports of the attack in a suburban Paris train outraged France, drawing fierce condemnation from politicians and Jewish groups.

The woman told police her young attackers were of North African and African origin and that none of some 20 witnesses in the train car came to her rescue. She said the gang robbed her and turned over a stroller holding her infant, causing the baby to tumble to the floor.

Newspapers gave the story front-page prominence Monday with headlines like “The Train of Hate.”

But, by Tuesday, front pages turned skeptical. “Questions on an attack,” said Liberation, which reported the woman’s account was full of “gray areas” and “contradictions.”

Surveillance cameras at the station where the gang reportedly left the train showed no young men running from the scene, and none of the alleged 20 witnesses had come forward despite repeated calls from officials and promises of anonymity.

Both France-Info radio and the television station LCI reported that the young woman had filed several complaints about violence and aggression in the past that never panned out.