France stabbing: Two killed and four injured in Romans-sur-Isère knife attack

Witnesses say man attacked people at random in town centre

Two people have been killed and four others injured in a knife attack in the southeastern French town of Romans-sur-Isère, the town's mayor has said.

The attack took place on Saturday morning outside a bakery near Lyon where customers were queueing, according to mayor Marie-Hélène Thoraval.

Ms Thoraval added that the assailant, who has been identified in reports as a 33-year-old man, had been arrested.

The French anti-terrorism prosecutor's office has said it is evaluating whether the attack was motivated by terrorism, but said it had not launched any formal proceedings to treat it as such.

Witnesses told Reuters the man struck at random and in several places while moving around the town centre.

Some of the injured are thought to be in serious condition, the French newspaper Le Monde reported.

Prosecutors have not identified the alleged attacker but they said he had no documents on him and claimed to be a Sudanese man, born in 1987.

“All my thoughts go out to the victims of the attack on #RomansSurIsère and their loved ones,” Christophe Castaner, the French interior minister, wrote on Twitter.

“The accused was arrested by the National Police. The DIPJ of Lyon is mobilised, under the authority of Justice, to establish the nature and the circumstances of this heinous act.”

Some French media reports said seven people were injured in the incident but prosecutors could not confirm this.

The town, like the rest of France, is currently under lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The stabbing victims were carrying out their weekend food shopping on the street, which has bakeries and grocers, authorities said.

Media reports have said the attacker first went into a tobacco shop and stabbed the tobacconist and two customers, before attacking several other people in the vicinity of that shop and a nearby bakery.

Additional reporting by agencies