A French woman and her three young daughters were seriously wounded in a knife attack at an Alpine resort on Tuesday by a man who reportedly complained that they were scantily dressed.

The man was arrested after the attack at the Alpine resort of Garde-Colombe, near Laragne, in southern France.

The youngest girl, aged 8, was rushed to hospital in Grenoble with a punctured lung, according to initial reports.

Her mother, 46, and sisters aged 12 and 14, were being treated at the hospital of Gap, closer to the scene of the attack. Their injuries were serious but not life-threatening, hospital sources said.