IS group claims fatal knife attack on two women in Marseille

Two women were stabbed to death and their assailant shot dead by soldiers at the main train station in the southern port city of Marseille on Sunday in an attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

The two victims – one aged 17 and the other 20 – suffered extensive injuries, two police sources said, saying one had her throat slit while the other was stabbed in the stomach.

Three police sources said the suspect had shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as he carried out the attack.

Some 200 police officers had cordoned off the area and all roads were closed to traffic, with security forces saying the operation was still ongoing.

The IS group claimed the attack through a statement posted by its Amaq propaganda agency late Sunday, according to the SITE monitoring group.

It quoted a security source as saying: "The executor of the stabbing operation in the city of Marseille ... is from the soldiers of the Islamic State."

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his outrage at the Marseille attack on his Twitter account and praised the reaction of the security services, including the Opération Sentinelle soldiers deployed to deal with such domestic threats.

"I hail the Opération Sentinelle soldiers and the police forces who reacted with extreme calmness and efficiency," Macron wrote on Twitter.