The Telegraph reports that a Moroccan-born man stabbed a woman and her three daughters at a resort in the Alps in southern France.
While preliminary reports claimed the attack was due to the women being "scantily dressed," a local prosecutor issued an official statement to the contrary.
Raphaël Balland, prosecutor of Gap, said: "I wanted to quash the rumour currently doing the rounds because on no account did this man make such comments about the fact that the attack may have been motivated by the victims' dress code."
The local mayor, Edmond Francou, also denied online media's attempts to tie the man to militant ideology and urged media sources to “not to speculate about the motive of the attack” or attempt to connect it to the massacre in Nice last week, the Telegraph reports.
At 10am, the assailant entered the family's chalet at the Colombe resort, and stabbed the three girls aged 8, 12, and 14, before moving inside to stab the mother.
The youngest girl is suffering from a punctured lung and is in critical condition, according to hospital sources. The mother was stabbed in the chest, but her wounds and the two older girls' are not considered life-threatening.
The attacker has a police record for petty crimes over the past 15 years, but was not on any watchlists.
He was staying next-door to the family at the resort, with his pregnant wife and two children. The attacker's family is from the Paris area.
The resort is providing counselling and emergency services to resort guests who are distraught from the attack.
French police arrested the man and the investigation is ongoing.
