TWO PEOPLE HAVE been killed and others have been wounded after being attacked by a man wielding a knife in a town under lockdown south of the French city of Lyon today. 

The attack happened at 11am in a commercial street in Romans-sur-Isere, the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press. 

The alleged attacker was arrested by police nearby, shortly after the attack. Prosecutors did not identify him. 

Prosecutors said that other people were also wounded.

The office said it is evaluating whether the attack was motivated by terrorism, but that it has not launched any formal proceedings to treat it as such.

Like the rest of France, the town’s residents are on coronavirus-linked lockdown.

The victims were carrying out their weekend food shopping on the street that has bakeries and grocers, the office said.

Two-metre distancing is being encouraged as in the rest of the country. 

There have been a number of knife attacks in France in recent months.

In January, French police shot and injured a man in Metz who was waving a knife and shouting “Allahu akbar”.

Two days earlier, another man was shot dead by police after he stabbed one person fatally and wounded two others in a Paris suburb.

Includes reporting by Associated Press