Jihad carnage
Knife fiend kills 2 women at France train hub
A MAN WITH a knife killed two women at the main train station of Marseille on Sunday, shouting “Allahu akbar” as he sliced his victims.
ISIS declared the attack at Saint-Charles train station was carried out by a “soldier,” though French authorities said they had yet to confirm a link to terrorism.
The madman rushed soldiers, who shot and killed him.
The gruesome attack was captured on video. The man attacked one woman with the knife and ran away — only to come back and attack a second woman, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said.
One victim was stabbed and one had her throat slit, police sources said.
Soldiers scrambling to the scene then shot the attacker as he ran toward them.
Collomb declined to provide any details about the suspect or identify the victims.
But he said the assailant’s “strange” behavior of attacking, running away and then returning to strike again was “a point of inquiry.”
Some witnesses heard the assailant shout “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” Collomb said.
The attack might have been of a “terrorist” nature, he added, but that could not be confirmed until the investigation progressed.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “deeply outraged” by the “barbarous” knife attack.
He paid tribute to the French soldiers on Twitter, writing that they responded “with cool head and efficiency.”
The attack took place at the same train depot where four Boston College students were splashed in their faces with acid by a 41-year-old woman on Sept. 17.
The students — two of whom are from New York — weren’t seriously hurt. They urged compassion for their assailant, who authorities described as “disturbed” and suffering from mental illness. Police said terrorism was not suspected in that case.
The French government last month decided to maintain the so-called Operation Sentinelle military force of 7,000 soldiers created to protect sensitive sites after a series of Islamist terror attacks in 2015.
In November of that year, ISIS terrorists carried out coordinated atrocities in Paris that resulted in the deaths of 130 people — including 89 at the Bataclan theater attending a rock concert.