Knifemen shot, held after running riot in France, Canada

Two knife attacks prompted an arrest in Canada and a shootout in France on Sunday. While French soldiers shot a man who stabbed two people, killing one, at Marseille station, the Canadian police arrested a man suspected of stabbing an officer and injuring four pedestrians in a series of violent incidents being investigated as an "act of terrorism."

French soldiers patrol outside the Marseille railway station. Pic/AFP

At least one person was stabbed to death and another seriously wounded at Marseille's main railway station, police sources said, in what one of them termed was a "terrorist act". One police source added that the man had cried out "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great in Arabic) before attacking the two people.

In Canada, the crime spree began Saturday evening outside a football stadium in the city of Edmonton and ended hours later with a high-speed chase in which the driver of a rented truck plowed into pedestrians, the police said.

"At the moment, we believe this is an individual who acted alone, although the investigation is in its early stages," said Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht. "It is believed four pedestrians were struck by the truck and transported to hospital with multiple injuries," according to the police account of the incident.

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Pedestrians struck by the truck in Canada