French mother and three daughters stabbed in Alps 'not attacked because they were scantily clad', prosecutor says

Initial reports claimed the man had attacked them because he was upset they were wearing shorts and T-shirts

(Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

A man has been arrested after he stabbed a woman and her three daughters at the Alps resort of Colombe in southern France.

Initial reports claimed the man had attacked them because he was upset they were wearing shorts and T-shirts, but a local prosecutor denied the claim.

"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," Raphael Balland, prosecutor of Gap, said at a press conference.

The prosecutor also said the attack had no link to religious fundamentalism.

The man reportedly attacked the three girls on the terrace of their hcalat around 10am, before going to attack their mother inside.

The mother, 36, and two of her daughters aged 12 and 14 are being treated at the central hospital of Gap, close to the scene of the attack.

Her other daughter, an eight-year-old, was rushed to hospital in Grenoble with a punctured lung.

The attacker, a 37-year-old man from Morocco, was on holiday with his pregnant wife and two children, local media reports.