[naviga:h3]Police say acid attack not terrorism[/naviga:h3]

PARIS — Four American college students were attacked with acid Sunday at a train station in France, but French authorities so far do not think extremist views motivated the 41-year-old woman who was arrested as the alleged assailant, the local prosecutor’s office and the students’ school said.

Boston College, a private Jesuit university in Massachusetts, said in a statement Sunday that the four female students were treated at a hospital for burns after they were sprayed in the face with acid in the city of Marseille. The statement said the four all were juniors studying abroad, three of them at the college’s Paris program.

“It appears that the students are fine, considering the circumstances, though they may require additional treatment for burns,” Nick Gozik, who directs Boston College’s Office of International Programs. “We have been in contact with the students and their parents and remain in touch with French officials and the U.S. Embassy regarding the incident.”

Police in France described the suspect as “disturbed” and said the attack was not thought at this point to be terror-related, according the university’s statement.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said earlier Sunday that its counter-terrorism division had decided for the time being not to assume jurisdiction for investigating the attack.

[naviga:h3]Britain lowers threat level after blast[/naviga:h3]

LONDON — British police made progress Sunday in their frantic pursuit of suspects and evidence connected to the bomb that partially exploded on a packed London subway, leading counter-terrorism officials to lower the nation’s threat level from critical to severe because they no longer considered a fresh attack to be imminent.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced the downgraded terror threat level hours after London police said a second suspect was in custody and a second property was being searched in connection with Friday’s attack that injured 30 people.

Rudd cautioned that the investigation was ongoing and that Britain still faced a substantial threat.

“Severe still means that an attack is highly likely, so I would urge everybody to be vigilant but not alarmed,” she said.