PARIS, France (AP) -- Just days after claiming to be the victim of an attack that stunned France, a young mother confessed to making up the story, authorities said Tuesday.
The woman claimed to have been robbed Friday by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body.
But police, finding no clues and no witnesses, brought the woman in for questioning Tuesday, police officials said on condition of anonymity.
No details were immediately available to explain her motives for claiming to have been attacked.
Reports of the attack in a suburban Paris train outraged France, drawing fierce condemnation from politicians and Jewish groups.
The woman told police the men were of North African and African origin and that none of some 20 witnesses came to her rescue as the gang robbed her and overturned her stroller causing her infant to tumble out.
Newspapers gave the story front-page prominence Monday with headlines like "The Train of Hate."
But, by Tuesday, front pages were universally skeptical. "Questions on an attack," blared Liberation, which said the woman's account was full of "gray areas" and "contradictions."
Surveillance cameras at the station where the culprits reportedly left the train showed no young men running from the scene, and none of the alleged 20 witnesses have 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 for violence and aggression in the past that never panned out.
Neither provided sources, but LCI said she had filed six such complaints in the past. That information could not be immediately confirmed.
Justice Minister Dominique Perben urged the public to be patient and wait for investigators to reach a conclusion.
"All the elements are being verified and screened," he said earlier Tuesday. "It is, therefore, essential to wait for this work to be finished before making up our minds one way or the other."
In a morning radio interview, government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said that whether the woman's account proved true or not had little bearing on France's need to stem hate crimes.
"The explosion of the number of racist and anti-Semitic acts committed in our country in the last few years is a reality that we must combat," Cope told RTL radio.
The Interior Ministry released figures last week showing that hate crimes had spiked in the first half of the year. There were 510 anti-Jewish acts or threats in the first six months of 2004 -- nearly as many as in all of last year, 593.
Racist attacks were up too: There were 95 attacks and 161 threats through June, compared to 232 total such crimes reported in 2003.
The woman claimed to have been robbed Friday by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body.
But police, finding no clues and no witnesses, brought the woman in for questioning Tuesday, police officials said on condition of anonymity.
No details were immediately available to explain her motives for claiming to have been attacked.
Reports of the attack in a suburban Paris train outraged France, drawing fierce condemnation from politicians and Jewish groups.
The woman told police the men were of North African and African origin and that none of some 20 witnesses came to her rescue as the gang robbed her and overturned her stroller causing her infant to tumble out.
Newspapers gave the story front-page prominence Monday with headlines like "The Train of Hate."
But, by Tuesday, front pages were universally skeptical. "Questions on an attack," blared Liberation, which said the woman's account was full of "gray areas" and "contradictions."
Surveillance cameras at the station where the culprits reportedly left the train showed no young men running from the scene, and none of the alleged 20 witnesses have 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 for violence and aggression in the past that never panned out.
Neither provided sources, but LCI said she had filed six such complaints in the past. That information could not be immediately confirmed.
Justice Minister Dominique Perben urged the public to be patient and wait for investigators to reach a conclusion.
"All the elements are being verified and screened," he said earlier Tuesday. "It is, therefore, essential to wait for this work to be finished before making up our minds one way or the other."
In a morning radio interview, government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said that whether the woman's account proved true or not had little bearing on France's need to stem hate crimes.
"The explosion of the number of racist and anti-Semitic acts committed in our country in the last few years is a reality that we must combat," Cope told RTL radio.
The Interior Ministry released figures last week showing that hate crimes had spiked in the first half of the year. There were 510 anti-Jewish acts or threats in the first six months of 2004 -- nearly as many as in all of last year, 593.
Racist attacks were up too: There were 95 attacks and 161 threats through June, compared to 232 total such crimes reported in 2003.
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