PARIS — Four American college students were attacked with acid Sunday at a train station in France, but French authorities so far do not think extremist views motivated the 41-year-old woman who was arrested as the alleged assailant, the local prosecutor’s office and the students’ school said.
Boston College, a private Jesuit university in Massachusetts, said in a statement Sunday that the four women students were treated at a hospital for burns after they were sprayed in the face with acid in the city of Marseille. The statement said all four were juniors studying abroad, three of them in the college’s Paris program.
Boston College identified the students as Courtney Siverling, Charlotte Kaufman, Michelle Krug and Kelsey Kosten.
A spokeswoman for the Marseille prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press by phone that two of the Americans were “slightly injured” with acid but did not require emergency medical treatment from medics at the scene.
“It appears that the students are fine, considering the circumstances, though they may require additional treatment for burns,” said Nick Gozik, who directs Boston College’s Office of International Programs. “We have been in contact with the students and their parents, and remain in touch with French officials and the U.S. Embassy regarding the incident.”
Police in France described the suspect as “disturbed” and said the attack was not thought at this point to be terror-related, according to the university’s statement.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said earlier Sunday that its counterterrorism division had decided for the time being not to assume jurisdiction for investigating the attack. The prosecutor’s office in the capital, which has responsibility for all terror-related cases in France, did not explain the reasoning behind the decision.
The Marseille prosecutor’s office spokeswoman told AP that the suspect did not make any extremist threats or declarations during the late-morning attack at the city’s Saint Charles train station. She said there were no obvious indications that the woman’s actions were terror-related.
A person with knowledge of the investigation said the suspect had a history of mental health problems but no apparent past links to extremism. Regional newspaper La Provence said the assailant remained at the site of the attack without trying to flee.
Angela Charlton in Paris and Crystal Hill in Boston contributed to the report.