Terrorist stabs two to death in French train station

Two people have been killed in a knife attack at Marseille's Saint Charles train station.

The assailant has been shot dead by security forces in the southern French city. The incident is being treated as an act of terrorism, media report.

"Two victims have been stabbed to death," regional police chief Olivier de Mazieres told AFP.

France's Interior Minister, Gérard Collomb, said he was immediately 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".

Train traffic has been stopped, it said. 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, which sees combat troops patrol streets and protect key sites amid an ongoing state of emergency.

The man who carried out the attack was in his twenties and of North African appearance, reports say.