Undocumented foreigners who commit crimes will be deported: Macron

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that any undocumented foreigner who commits a crime will be deported, speaking two weeks after a Tunisian man stabbed two women to death in the southern city of Marseille.

"We will take the most severe measures, we will do what we must do," Macron said in a televised interview.

The assailant, Ahmed Hanachi, had been arrested for shoplifting two days before the October 1 attack in the eastern city of Lyon.

He was allowed to walk free the following day — a decision the government's inspectorate general (IGA) said revealed "serious faults" in the handling of foreigners whose papers are not in order.

Hanachi, 29, fatally stabbed the two women at Marseille's Saint-Charles train station before being shot dead by police.

The attack was claimed by Daesh, but French investigators have not found any evidence linking the attack to the extremists.

But he was known to the police for drug as well as alcohol problems and had a history of petty crime, using seven aliases.