Acid attack on US tourists 'not being treated as terrorism'

Update 7.30pm: An acid attack on four American women in Marseille is not being investigated as an act of terrorism, French officials said.

Acid attack on US tourists 'not being treated as terrorism'

Update 7.30pm: An acid attack on four American women in Marseille is not being investigated as an act of terrorism, French officials said.

The Paris prosecutor's office said that its counter-terrorism division had not assumed jurisdiction for the attack at Marseille's main train station on Sunday morning. The prosecutor's office has responsibility for all terror-related cases in France.

A spokeswoman for Marseille's prosecutor said earlier that the 41-year-old woman arrested as a suspect in the attack did not make any extremist declarations, but said officials could not rule out terror as a motive so early in the investigation.

Regional newspaper La Provence reported that the suspect had a history of mental health problems and did not try to flee the scene of the attack.

The Marseille fire department said two of the tourists were injured in the face in the attack in the city's main Saint Charles train station and one of them has a possible eye injury, a spokeswoman said.

She said all four of the tourists, who are in their 20s, have been taken to hospital, two of them for shock.

Earlier:

Four young female US tourists were attacked with acid in the French city of Marseille today a woman who has been arrested, the city prosecutor's office said.

Two of the tourists were injured in the face in the attack in the city's main Saint Charles train station and one of them has a possible eye injury, a spokeswoman said.

She said all four of the tourists, who are in their 20s, have been taken to hospital, two of them for shock.

She said a 41-year-old female suspect has been arrested.

In previous incidents in Marseille, a driver deliberately rammed into two bus stops last month, killing a woman, but officials said it was not terror-related.

In April, French police say they thwarted an imminent "terror attack" and arrested two suspected radicals in Marseille just days before the first round of France's presidential election.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters the two suspects "were getting ready to carry out an imminent, violent action" on French territory.

In January 2016, a 15-year-old Turkish Kurd was arrested after attacking a Jewish teacher on a Marseille street.

He told police he acted in the name of the so-called 'Islamic State' group.

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