Chester County woman among 4 Americans attacked with acid in France
PARIS (AP/WTXF) -- A Chester County woman is among those who were attacked with acid in France this weekend.
Four American tourists were hospitalized after a woman attacked them with acid in Marseille's main train station in France on Sunday, the city's prosecutor's office said.
The four American women, said to be in their twenties and identified as Boston College students, were in the Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles train station when the acid attack happened, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Two of the women had the corrosive liquid sprayed in their face, leaving one with a possible eye injury.
The Boston College students, identified by a student newspaper as Courtney Siverling, of Chester Springs, Charlotte Kaufman, Michelle Krug and Kelsey Kosten, were hospitalized after the attack.
The women, two of which were treated for shock, have since been released. The four all were juniors studying abroad, three of them at the college's Paris program.
"It appears that the students are fine, considering the circumstances, though they may require additional treatment for burns," Nick Gozik, director of the college's Office of International Programs, told the newspaper. "We have been in contact with the students and their parents and remain in touch with French officials and the US Embassy regarding the incident."
The Paris prosecutor's office said earlier Sunday that its counter-terrorism 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.
A spokeswoman for the Marseille prosecutor's office told The Associated Press in a telephone call 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.
Regional newspaper La Provence, quoting unidentified police officials, reported that the suspect had a history of mental health problems and noted that she remained at the site of the attack without trying to flee.
Siverling later posted on Facebook that she was not injured during the attack. She also thanked authorities and prayed for her attacker.