SCRANTON, Pa. — Two women are are dead, another is hospitalized, and a man is in custody for a brutal machete attack in downtown Scranton Tuesday night.

Authorities say a man — identified at a news conference by city police and the Lackawanna County District Attorney's Office as 38-year-old Michael Woods — attacked three women, as well as a dog, on the sixth floor of the Jermyn Apartments along Biden Street and Wyoming Avenue.

Woods lived on the building's sixth floor.

Two women, 61 and 59-years-old, died from their injuries, Police Chief Thomas Carroll said. Woods also stabbed a service dog to death, he added.

Woods attacked a third woman, nearly severing one of her hands, police said. The woman, 66, remained hospitalized Wednesday afternoon in critical condition.

The names of the

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