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Marseille suspect released from custody day before attack

An investigative police officer works by a body under a white sheet outside Marseille 's main train station Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017 in Marseille, southern France. A man with a knife attacked people at the main train station in the southeastern French city of Marseille on Sunday, killing two women before soldiers fatally shot the assailant, officials said. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)
An investigative police officer works by a body under a white sheet outside Marseille 's main train station Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017 in Marseille, southern France. A man with a knife attacked people at the main train station in the southeastern French city of Marseille on Sunday, killing two women before soldiers fatally shot the assailant, officials said. (AP Photo/Claude Paris) An investigative police officer works by a body under a white sheet outside Marseille 's main train station Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017 in Marseille, southern France. A man with a knife attacked people at the main train station in the southeastern French city of Marseille on Sunday, killing two women before soldiers fatally shot the assailant, officials said. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

By Associated Press 1 min read

PARIS (AP) – French officials say a man who fatally stabbed two women at Marseille’s main train station had been arrested and released the day before the attack.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, the latest of several targeting France.

Two police officials said Monday the man didn’t have French residency papers and was detained for suspected shoplifting in the Lyon region Saturday before being released. The officials said he wasn’t on France’s extremist watch list.

The suspect, killed by police after Sunday’s attack, was identified by his fingerprints. French media reports said he used multiple identity papers.

The victims were cousins between 17 and 21 years old, according to three police and judicial officials who weren’t authorized to be publicly named discussing an ongoing investigation.