LYON: Two women were injured on Friday by an attacker wielding a hammer and shouting Allahu Akbar in the eastern French town of Chalon-sur-Saone in Burgundy, local officials said.

The local prosecutor's office said witnesses of the attack in a public park of the town centre heard the attacker shout Allahu Akbar while hitting the women, who were taken to hospital but whose life is not in danger.

Prosecutors said they were treating the incident as a possible terror attack, but also did not rule out the possibility the attacker was deranged.

The attacker was still on the run on Friday afternoon, police said.