Two women killed in IS knife attack
TWO young women are dead – one with her throat cut – after they were attacked by a knifeman in an Islamist terror attack at a train station in the southern French city of Marseilles.
A man yelling “Allahu Akbar’’ or “God is great’’ in Arabic, attacked the pair at the Gare Saint-Charles train station about 1.45pm French time, as it was packed with lunchtime commuters.
The attacker, a man aged about 30, was shot dead by soldiers patrolling the station as part of Operation Sentinelle, deployed under the state of emergency provisions that have been in place since the November 2015 terror attacks across Paris, including at the Bataclan Theatre, which killed 130 people.
France’s Interior Minister, Gerard Collomb, said the incident “might be a terrorist act, but at this point we can’t say so with certainty, so I prefer to wait and see.’’
Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack.
The victims are believed to be two young women aged just 20 years and 17 years.
One was attacked from behind and had her throat cut. Another was stabbed in the chest and stomach.
Photographs posted on social media showed the bodies of one of the victims crumpled on the ground outside the ornate train station – the main terminal in the Mediterranean port city.
The attacker’s body lay nearby, his white sneakers poking out from under a sheet, a pair of open handcuffs discarded on the ground by his side.
News agency AFP reported he was previously known to police. France24 reported he was of North African appearance and had been carrying a large butcher’s knife.
French president Emmanuel Macron tweeted his outrage, saying he was: “Profoundly struck by this barbarous act, my thoughts with the loved one of the victims of Marseilles.
“I salute the Operation Sentinelle soldiers and the police forces who reacted with extreme calmness and efficiency.’’
Anti-terror prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether the attack amounted to “killings linked to a terrorist organisation.’’
More than 200 police officers cordoned off the station, evacuating commuters and diverting hundreds of trains, bringing chaos to the main lines around Marseilles, a multicultural city of about 900,000 inhabitants, the third largest city in France behind Paris and Lyon.
More than 230 people have been killed in France since the wave of Islamist killings began in November 2015.