No link found so far between Marseille assailant and ISIS: Source

Police officers guard the train station of Saint Charles in Marseille, France, on Oct 1, 2017. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

PARIS (AFP, Reuters) - French investigators probing a knife attack in Marseille at the weekend have not found any link so far between the assailant and the Islamic State in Iraq annd Syria (ISIS) group, a source close to the case told AFP on condition of anonymity.

ISIS's Amaq propaganda agency claimed late Sunday that the killer of two women at the main train station in the port city was "from the soldiers of the Islamic State".

The had been arrested and then released by police two days before the incident, a source close to the police investigation said earlier Monday (Oct 2).

The source said the suspect - who went by eight different identities or aliases - was stopped by police in Lyon on Sept 29 on suspicion of robbery. He was then released for a lack of evidence.

The suspect's identity remained unclear, the source added.

"The murderer had eight different aliases. Each time he was stopped, he presented a different identity paper. That's why it's so difficult. At one moment, he says he was born in France, at another he says he was born in Algeria," the source said.

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A man suspected of carrying out a knife attack in the French city of Marseille, in which two women were stabbed to death, had been arrested and then released by police the day before the incident, the Paris public prosecutor said on Monday.

A soldier shot the suspect dead after he had stabbed two women to death at Marseille main train station on Sunday, in what officials described as a "likely terrorist act".

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