The Great Smoky Mountain Journal

Staff, Wire Reports

Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 03:53 PM

Four Americans Hospitalized After Acid Attack At French Train Station Near Marseille

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 20s 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, 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.

“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.”

Three of the women — Kaufman, Krug and Siverling — are reportedly enrolled in the school's "BC in Paris" program, while Kosten is a student at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.