Attacks in France, Canada

Terror returned to France as a man shouting “Allahu akbar” killed two women in a frenzied knife attack at Marseille’s main railway station before being shot dead.

The victims were aged 17 and 20, police said.

The attacker, reportedly aged about 20, was armed with two butcher’s knives. He was known to the authorities for theft, drug dealing and other crimes but had not been flagged up as a potential terrorist. Isis later claimed the attack.

Dominique, a witness, described how the attacker grabbed one of the women from behind and slit her throat. “She couldn’t have seen a thing,” the witness told CNews television.

He began to flee after the first attack but returned to attack a second victim before running at soldiers who were rushing to the scene. They shot him twice just outside the station. Two police sources say the second victim was stabbed in the chest and stomach.

Meanwhile, Canadian police have charged a Somali refugee with five counts of attempted murder after they said he stabbed a police officer and injured several pedestrians with a car in Edmonton, Alberta, in an apparent act of terrorism.

The suspect, a 30-year-old man, had been investigated two years ago for promoting extremist ideology but not deemed a threat, police said.

The attacks began when a Chevy Malibu hit a police officer. The driver got out and stabbed the officer.

An Isis flag was found inside the Malibu, police said. “To the best of our knowledge, this was a lone-wolf attack,” Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson told reporters. — Telegraph Group Ltd, AAP, Reuters