PARIS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The knife-wielding man who killed two young women in the southeastern French city of Marseille on Sunday has been identified as a Tunisian who has different aliases, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed Tuesday.
Speaking to lawmakers, Collomb said Tunisian authorities identified the attacker as Ahmed Hanachi late on Monday.
The 29-year-old man lived in France from 2005 to 2006 before going to Italy.
"All these years, he used multiple identities in France as well as in Italy, declaring himself to be Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian," Collomb said.
"And then, he goes out of the French territory and we do not hear about him before the robbery in Lyon," he added.
On Sunday afternoon, Hanachi, armed with two knives, killed two cousins at a railway station in Marseille. Afterwards, he tried to attack military officers before being shot dead.
Two days prior to the assault, he had been arrested by police in Lyon, France for robbery but was released for lack of evidence. At the time, he told police he was homeless, divorced, and suffered drug abuse, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said on Monday.
"The investigation is progressing. Some individuals have been arrested and will allow us to know more about the facts in the coming days," Collomb said.
According to local media, four people were detained earlier on Tuesday in the port city of Marseille in connection with the attack.
