Marseille Attack two women stabbed to death

Two young women have been stabbed to death at Marseille's main train station in a suspected terrorist attack.

Soldiers on guard at the station shot dead the attacker, who police described as of North African appearance and aged about 30. Witnesses said he shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest).

One victim had her throat slit and the other was stabbed in the stomach. They were aged 17 and 20.

President Emmanuel Macron said he was disgusted by the "barbarous act".

Mediterranean port city at around 1.45pm. “Everyone ran out screaming; that’s when I heard two gun shots,” Lionel, a student doctor, told Le Figaro. “In less than five minutes, dozens of police were there and blocking the station.”

Another witness told France Info radio the attacker had approached the victims from behind.

Armed police were deployed afterwards and the grand and ornate rail terminus in France’s second biggest city was evacuated, stopping all train traffic on one of the country’s busiest lines.

Sentinelle was launched after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris in January 2015. But after the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 people, the former Socialist president François Hollande increased the presence to 10,000 troops across the nation, with about 6,500 of them in the Paris area.