Two people have been killed in a knife attack at Marseille's Saint Charles train station.
A police officer outside Saint-Charles train station in Marseille, after a man armed with a knife killed two people before being shot by soldiers. Photo: AFP
The assailant has been shot dead by security forces in the southern French city. The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism, officials said.
"Two victims have been stabbed to death," regional police chief Olivier de Mazieres told AFP news agency.
France Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said he was travelling to the scene.
France's national police tweeted that the situation at the station had been resolved, and the perpetrator "neutralised and shot down".
Police had earlier asked people to avoid the area.
An unnamed official told France's Le Monde newspaper that the assailant had cried "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
French media report that both victims were women; one had her throat cut and the other was stabbed to death.
According to BFMTV, the attacker was killed by French soldiers who were already in the station as part of Operation Sentinelle, where combat troops patrol streets and protect key sites amid an ongoing state of emergency.
Reports say the attacker was in his twenties and appeared to be North African.
France's national train operator SNCF has asked people to postpone planned journeys via the station.
Recent terror attacks in France
- 20 Apr 2017 - A known terror suspect opens fire at police on the Champs Elysees in Paris, killing one and wounding two. He is shot dead - and the assault is claimed by IS
- 3 Feb 2017 - A machete-wielding Egyptian man shouting "Allahu akbar" attacks French soldiers at Paris's Louvre Museum - he is shot and wounded.
- 26 Jul 2016 - Two attackers slits the throat of a priest at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, in Normandy. They are shot dead by police.
- 14 Jul 2016 - A huge lorry mows down a crowd of people on the Nice beachfront during Bastille Day celebrations, killing 86. IS claims the attack - by a Tunisian-born driver, later shot dead by police
- 13 Jun 2016 - A knife-wielding jihadist kills a police officer and his partner at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris. He declares allegiance to Islamic State (IS), and police later kill him
- 13 Nov 2015 - IS jihadists armed with bombs and assault rifles attack Paris, targeting the national stadium, cafes and Bataclan concert hall. The co-ordinated assault leaves 130 people dead, and more than 350 wounded
- 7-9 Jan 2015 - Two Islamist gunmen storm the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 17 people. Another Islamist militant kills a policewoman the next day and takes hostages at a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Four hostages are killed before police shoot the gunman dead. The other two gunmen are cornered and killed by police in a siege
- BBC