ISIS Claim Responsibility for Frenzied Marseille Railway Station Attack
ISIS have claimed responsibility for a terror attack which saw a man shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ stab two women to death with a butcher’s knife in Marseille.
The victims, aged 17 and 20, suffered horrific injuries during the ‘frenzied’ attack, with one slashed in the throat and the other stabbed in the chest and stomach.
Eyewitnesses told how a man ‘dressed in black’ launched himself at the two women, who screamed for their lives as others ran for safety.
The assailant was gunned down by soldiers who were on patrol inside Saint Charles train station at the time as part of France’s ongoing state of emergency.
The suspect, thought to be aged 25 to 30, was known to authorities for common law crimes while analysis of his fingerprints came up with several aliases.
Anti-terror officials said they were investigating “links to a terrorist organisation” and the ‘attempted killing of a public official’, the identity of which is currently unknown. Photographs from the scene showed a woman lying on the ground and armed police standing over the attacker. A white sheet was later placed over his body.
In a tweet, President Emmanuel Macron said: ‘Deeply outraged by this barbaric act, in pain with the families and relatives of the victims of Marseille.
“I hail the Operation Sentinelle soldiers and the police forces who reacted with extreme calmness and efficiency.” Marseille mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin said he believed the incident to be a ‘terrorist attack’, while interior minister Gérard Collomb said it ‘could be’ related to terror.
British nationals in Marseille are being urged to take care after a knifeman killed two women at the city’s main railway station.
A Police source added: [The stabbings were] frenzied and took place in front of lots of witnesses. The man first shouted threats, and then launched into the two women.
“The two were killed by a knife, and then soldiers on anti-terrorism duties intervened. They shot the man dead.”