2 women stabbed to death in France

A suspected knifeman killed two women at the main train station in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille on Sunday before being shot dead by soldiers on patrol, local officials and police said. One of the victims had her throat slit by the assailant, a man with a criminal record believed to be in his 30s. Soldiers serving in a special force known as Sentinelle set up to guard vulnerable areas in terror-hit France responded to the stabbings and shot dead the attacker, whose identity remains unknown. “I was on the esplanade just in front of the station,” Melanie Petit, an 18-year-old student, said. “I saw a man who seemed to be dressed all in black.” — AFP