On Sunday, four early late-teen and early-twenty, American female college students who are studying abroad were attacked with hydrocholoric acid outside of a train station in Marseille, France according to the Marseille prosecutor’s office.
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All four women are being treated at the hospital.
The identities of the women were released by Boston College, where they are students studying abroad.
They were named by Boston College as Courtney Siverling, Charlotte Kaufman, Michelle Krug and Kelsey Kosten.
Two of them are being treated for burns to the face and the other two for shock.
The female attacker’s identity has not been released although she has been arrested.
Marseille police say the incident is not currently being treated as terror related. The authorities released that the attacker was a 41 year old “deeply psychologically disturbed woman.”
Last month in Marseille a driver purposefully rammed into two bust stops, killing a woman. That incident was not treated as a terror attack.
Then previously, in April, French police said they foiled an imminent Marseille terror attack and arrested two suspected terrorists. At the time, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said that the suspects were getting ready to carry out an imminent attack.
Because of its location as a large Mediterranean port, Marseille has always been considered one of the main entry points into France. This has attracted many immigrants and made Marseille a melting pot.
Concentrated hydrochloric acid (fuming hydrochloric acid) forms acidic mists. Both the mist and the solution have a corrosive effect on human tissue, with the potential to damage respiratory organs, eyes, skin, and intestines irreversibly. Upon mixing hydrochloric acid with common oxidizing chemicals, such as sodium hypochlorite (bleach, NaClO) or potassium permanganate (KMnO4), the toxic gas chlorine is produced.
