Marseille: Isis claims responsibility for stabbings after leader's renewed call for attacks on West

First recording of reclusive cleric in almost a year praised militants for fighting in Mosul and Raqqa and called for attacks on countries in the anti-Isis US-led coalition

(Reuters/Jean-Paul Pelissier)

Isis has claimed responsibility for an attack at Marseille’ Saint Charles train station in which two women were killed by a knife-wielding attacker reportedly shouting “Allahu akbar!”

One of the two women, whom have been identified as cousins aged between 17 - 21, died after her throat was slit and the other was stabbed in the abdomen before police shot and killed the unidentified assailant at the scene on Sunday.

Isis was quick to claim the incident via its Amaq news agency, putting out a statement which said the “soldier of the caliphate” was acting in response to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s call last week for renewed attacks on countries which are part of the US-led coalition’s assault on Isis’ remaining territory across Syria and Iraq.

France has been involved in the coalition to drive the militants out of their Middle Eastern strongholds since 2014.

Amaq did not provide evidence that the Marseille attack had been directly ordered by Isis commanders in Syria and Iraq. The French authorities are working to establish whether the assailant had accomplices or other links to the organisation or was an opportunistic attacker, as has been the case in many recent terror incidents in France.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters on Monday that the suspect had been detained by police for shoplifting the day before, and was known to have used a series of fake identities during previous arrests for petty crime. He was not previously on France’s extremist watch list, officials told the Associated Press.

The man’s phone is now being searched for further evidence of his true identity and motives. It is believed he was not a French national or legal resident.

Saint Charles station reopened for the rush hour commute as normal on Monday.

The station was previously the site of an attack in September in which four US students had acid thrown at them by a female assailant whom police said had a history of mental illness.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “deeply outraged” by Sunday's “barbarous” knife attack.

In a tweet, he paid tribute to the French soldiers who responded “with cool heads and efficiency.”

The incident is the latest in a wave of deadly attacks on civilians in France since 2015. Most have been claimed by Islamic extremists.