'Deeply outraged': French President Macron on knife attack that left two women dead

(Marseille) [France]: French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he was 'deeply outraged' by the 'barbarous' knife attack that left two women dead.

Two women were killed in southern France on Sunday by an assailant armed with a knife, in an attack that forced the evacuation of a major train station in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille.

The assailant was shot dead by a military patrol after killing the women in front of the Saint-Charles train station in Marseille.

The Paris prosecutor's office, which handles terrorism cases nationwide, after the incident, said that it had opened a terrorism investigation, adding that the assailant's motives were not entirely clear.

"This act could be of a terrorist nature, but at this hour we cannot affirm it," The New York Times quoted Gerard Collomb, the French Interior minister, as saying.

Asked about reports that the attacker yelled "Allahu akbar," at the moment of the attack, Collomb said that "a certain number" of witnesses had said they heard him do so, adding that they were still being interviewed by the police for further details.

Édouard Philippe, the French prime minister, in a statement, expressed "anger and outrage" after the attack and praised the soldiers who had "neutralised the criminal and stopped his killing spree."

"We will not drop our guard," Philippe added on Twitter.