Acid attacks have become an epidemic in Europe. 1,500 acid attacks have been recorded in London alone since 2011.
Four young female U.S. tourists were attacked with acid Sunday in the French city of Marseille by a woman who has been arrested, the Marseille 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 for the Marseille prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press in a phone call.
She said all four of the tourists, who are in their 20s, have been hospitalized.
The spokeswoman said the suspect did not yell any out any terror-linked threats. She said there were no immediate indications that the attack was terror-related but added officials can’t rule out terror links at such an early stage of the investigation.
Marseille is a port city in southern France that is closer to Barcelona than Paris.
In previous incidents in Marseille, a driver deliberately rammed into two bus stops last month, killing a woman, but officials said it wasn’t 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. The teacher managed to avoid a serious machete attack by shielding himself with Jewish books he was holding. He told police he acted in the name of the Islamic State group.
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