Marseille knife killer was arrested for shoplifting and released the day before attacks
A MAN who fatally stabbed two women outside Marseille’s main train station had been detained for shoplifting and released the day before the attack, the Paris prosecutor has confirmed.
The attacker, who Tunisian authorities last night confirmed as Ahmed Hanachi, was shot dead by patrolling soldiers.
He had used seven aliases before killing the two cousins, both aged around 20, at Saint-charles station, said François Molins.
Sunday’s killings were the first terror attack in the city on the southern coast, home to a burgeoning population of French Muslims and North African immigrants.
Anti-terror prosecutors have opened an investigation into “killings linked to a terrorist organisation” and the “attempted killing of a public official”.
Mr Molins confirmed that Hanachi shouted “Allahu akbar [God is greatest]” while launching the deadly attack with “a 20cm blade”.
The prosecutor confirmed that he had been detained for suspected shoplifting at a department store in the Lyon region on Saturday, before being released shortly afterwards without charge.
At the time he was carrying a Tunisian passport, issued in 2014, stating that he was born in Bizerte in 1987 and went by the name of “Ahmed H”.
He was unknown to French intelligence and had a blank criminal record. He told Lyon police he was a hard drug user and homeless.
Amaq, the propaganda agency of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), later said he was “from the soldiers of the Islamic State”. It was unclear whether the claim was opportunistic.
The victims were cousins from the eastern French city of Lyon. One was studying in Marseille and the other was visiting her for the weekend.
One had her throat slit by Hanachi, who was seen on video footage striking his first victim from behind and then fleeing – only to return to launch a frenzied attack on her cousin.
Mr Molins praised the heroism of an unknown female passer-by who struck the assailant with a flag holder, knocking him over.
Hanachi then got up and rushed towards a group of soldiers, who shot him dead with two bullets after shouting warnings.
The incident came only days after Isil released a recording of what it said was its leader Abu Bakr al-baghdadi urging his followers to strike their enemies in the West.
France is a leading partner in the Usled international coalition fighting Isil in Iraq and Syria.
The French parliament will vote tomorrow on a controversial anti-terror bill that will transpose into national law some of the exceptional powers granted to the police under a 22-monthold state of emergency.