One dead, nine wounded in knife rampage in France

LYON, France –One person was killed and another nine were wounded, three seriously, on Saturday in a knife attack near the French city of Lyon, a regional official and emergency services said.

Two men, one armed with a knife and the other with a skewer, carried out the attack in Villeurbanne, a Lyon suburb, in southeastern France, the official said, without giving further details on the motive for the stabbing.

One of the men had been arrested by police but the second was on the run. The attack took place close to a metro station.

The detained man claimed to be Afghan but also gave at least two different identities, according to a security official. The attack might have been terrorism-related, the official said, but authorities consider it more likely the suspect was mentally unstable.

The victim who died was a 19-year-old man, and it was unclear if he knew the attacker, according to a local police official.

The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has not been asked to participate in the investigation at this stage. An official with the Lyon regional administration said national security forces weren’t involved in the search, which includes a few dozen local police officers and a helicopter.

An AFP journalist at the scene witnessed a body being taken away in an ambulance and traces of blood on the ground.

Last May, a parcel bomb in front of a baker’s shop in central Lyon left 14 people slightly injured.

The perpetrator, a young radicalized Algerian, who was arrested three days later, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, according to his confession.