Islamic State claims responsibility for Marseille attack that killed 2

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a knife attack that killed two women at the main train station in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille.

The monitoring group SITE quoted an Arabic language report on the group's Amaq propaganda agency that cited a "security source" as saying: "The executor of the stabbing operation in the city of Marseille... is from the soldiers of the Islamic State."

The attacker, a man believed to be in his 30s, was shot dead by soldiers serving in a special 7,000-strong force known as Sentinelle set up to guard vulnerable areas in terror-hit France.

The latest deaths came with France still on high alert and under a state of emergency following a string of attacks in recent years by extremists linked to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda.