One man was beheaded and several others injured in a suspected Islamist attack on a French factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, French media reported on Friday.
28 June 2015
The main suspect behind the attack on a French gas plant has admitted to decapitating his boss, AFP reports citing own sources close to the investigation. Yassin Salhi also reportedly provided other evidence, though it is not elaborated which.
#BREAKING: France attacks suspect confesses to killing: source close to probe
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) June 28, 2015
The attacker behind the gruesome decapitation and raid on a gas factory in France is believed to have taken a selfie with the victim’s head, which according to sources, he sent to yet unknown recipients believed to be registered in North America.
READ MORE: France terrorist attack suspect took selfie with beheading victim
27 June 2015
Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned Saturday that France faced the possibility of more attacks to come.
“It's difficult for a society to live for years under the threat of attack,” he told AFP on a flight back from Bogota, adding, “the question is not ... if there will be another attack, but when.”
An unnamed woman who identified herself as Salhi's wife told Europe 1 radio station that she was shocked to hear of the atrocities committed in Lyon.
“On the news they are saying that it’s a terrorist attack, but that's impossible. I know him, he's my husband. We have a normal family life,” she said prior to her detention by the authorities. “He went to work this morning at 7:00am.”
“We are normal Muslims, we're observing Ramadan. Normal. We have three kids, a normal family life,” she said.
Yassin Salhi became known to intelligence services in 2005 and 2006 for socializing with a group of people associated with radical Islam. He was investigated for a few years thereafter, but authorities did not renew their inquiry in 2008, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
"This individual has links with the Salafist movement, but had not been identified as having participated in activities of a terrorist nature," Cazeneuve told AFP.
26 June 2015
Yassin Salhi, who carried out a terrorist attack in the French town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, was acting alone, said Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins as he announced preliminary investigation findings, TASS news agency reports. “Nothing indicates that he had an accomplice who would help him in the factory or ... [with] surveillance, with all the witnesses claiming only one man attacked the factory,” the Prosecutor said.
The terror alert has been raised in Spain, following Friday attacks in France, Kuwait and Tunisia. The level has been set at four, out of a possible five tiers, Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said. He referred to the close “proximity of the attacks,” and the fact that it is the one-year anniversary of the proclamation of a 'caliphate' by Islamic State.
The Department of Energy has asked operators with sensitive industrial sites to strengthen their vigilance after the Friday attack. This includes strengthening “human presence on storage sites,” as well as “restricting entries” and “being more attentive to movements” on site.
The US company Air Products wrote in a statement that it has secured all its sites around the world.
Spain has condemned the attack in France.
"I strongly condemn the attack...Democrats will always stand against barbarism," wrote Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on his Twitter account.
French President Francois Hollande and Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi expressed solidarity after the Friday attacks in both countries, according to a statement from Hollande's office.
There is a "long list" of scandals involving Western intelligence agencies that have been "actively colluding with groups like Al-Qaeda" to fight wars of aggression on behalf of the West, independent political analyst Dan Glazebrook told RT.
The Rhône-Alpes is under maximum security alert for the next three days, Hollande said, adding that there will be security checks in place.
"There should be no doubt about the ability of our countries to protect themselves," he said.
Salhi and two of his friends were classified as "hard Muslims," according to 2013 and 2014 documents from the French department of Doubs, RTL reported.
In the most recent document, police stressed that Salhi had "regular absences and long periods estimated at two to three months without being able to say where he went. "
He also hosted a home meeting with men dressed in military fatigues. Despite the government knowing these details, Salhi was not subject to enhanced surveillance.
Hollande: "Terrorism is our opponent, our enemy."
A neighbor of the Salhi family told Le Figaro that they are a "discreet family."
"Their children play with mine, they are quite normal," the resident said.
Hollande said at the end of an emergency meeting that the victim was "cowardly murdered."
RT's latest report on the attack:
The President of the National Observatory against Islamophobia, Abdallah Zekri, has "strongly condemned this barbaric and indiscriminate that claims a religious project but which is in total contradiction with the values of Islam and even more particularly in the month of Ramadan, the month of piety, brotherhood, and sharing," Le Dauphine reported.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) has condemned the Friday morning attack, Le Dauphine reported.
"The CFCM condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that targeted the Air Products plant," wrote the body's representative, Dalil Boubaker.
The organization "expresses its most profound indignation at these barbaric acts that cannot lay claim to any religion or any cause," he added.
Salhi didn’t have a criminal record, but was identified as a possibly radicalized individual, Interior Minister Cazeneuve said, adding that the suspect had a "link" to Salafist movement.
The man beheaded was the boss of suspect Yassin Salhi. A source told Reuters that the two had gone to the company's premises together to make a delivery, but that the suspect killed and decapitated the victim before driving the vehicle onto the site.
Political analyst Chris Bambery told RT that "blame game can cause more alienation of Muslims".
The wife of suspect Yassin Salhi has been arrested near Lyon. This is the third arrest, following Salhi and another man.
A search is underway at the house of suspect Yassin Salhi.
Perquisition toujours en cours à Saint-Priest au domicile du principal suspect dans l'attaque terroriste en #Isèrepic.twitter.com/rp3EUgkc5M
— Daniel ABELOUS (@DanielAbelous) June 26, 201
A gathering will take place in Bourgoin-Jallieu at 6 p.m. local time, in front of the Monument of Peace, to pray for the victims of the attack in France.
The mayor of nearby Grenoble, Eric Piolle, said: "Like everyone, I feel a deep sense of revulsion at the barbaric act committed this morning...my first thoughts are with the victims and their families...we refuse to yield to violence."
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the COBRA emergency response committee will meet later on Friday to discuss the attacks in France and Tunisia, “to make sure we are doing everything we can to cooperate and coordinate with other countries.”
"This is a threat that faces all of us, these events that have taken place today in Tunisia and in France, but they can happen anywhere - we all face this threat," he told reporters.
Cameron expressed his solidarity with the French people, and said he hopes to later speak with the Tunisian government to over sympathy and condolences.
French President Francois Hollande arrived at Élysée Palace at 2:30 p.m. local time, where he is chairing a cabinet meeting at 3:30 p.m.
British Prime Minister David Cameron says the French attack, as well as the attack at a Tunisia beach resort, are "appalling terrorist acts."
Salhi's wife told Europe 1 that her husband "did not come home between noon and 2 p.m.," as she expected him to. Her sister-in-law told her to "turn on the TV," and she was crying. That is when she allegedly found out about the attack.
The victim has been identified as a manager of a transport company, who was at the site for a delivery.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls has cut short his trip to South America following the attack.
"We condemn in the strongest terms this act of terrorism and fanaticism," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.
According to Le Dauphine, the second person who was arrested was seen before the attack took place.
The German government says it is united with France "against the blind hatred of terrorism."
In a statement, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "We solemnly ask the government to shed light on the exact circumstances of the attack and take absolutely all the lessons of this latest attack, by improving our level of vigilance."
BREAKING: Top French official: Multiple arrests after attack on factory in southeastern France.
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 26, 2015
French President Francois Hollande said "the attack is terrorist in nature."
The second suspect was arrested at his home in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, Le Dauphine reported.
One of the suspects is Yacine Sali, the country's interior minister told the media.
Suspected accomplices are being held by police, according to the interior minister.
French politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan has called for the incarceration and removal of jihadists from French territory.
"I was in my garden when there was an explosion. It was not very strong. I thought it was a plane," a resident who leaves near the plant told JDD.fr.
"I was worried when I heard the sirens," he added, stating that he is "surprised that this happens in a small country village where nothing really happens."
Marine Le Pen, leader of France's National Front party, has called for "firm and strong measures" to be taken "immediately" to "defeat Islam."
"The big declarations must now stop. The marches, slogans and emotional communication must finally give way to action. Nothing has been done for years against Islamic fundamentalism," she said.
An emergency defense council meeting will take place at 15:00 local time on Friday, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced.
French President Francois Hollande "is in constant contact with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and the services of the state," a source told Le Figaro.
The arrested man is refusing to identify himself to police.
French President Francois Hollande has left Brussels for France, following news of the attack.
Police say there is no risk to local schoolchildren, who are continuing their days as normal, according to Le Dauphine.
A crisis unit was established at Bourgoin-Jallieu Hospital to manage the situation and to support those who witnessed the attack, Le Dauphine reported.
Police are combing the area in search of possible accomplices, Le Point reported.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has arrived at the factory, iTélé reported.
A receptionist at the nearby Ibis budget Lyon Isle d'Abeau hotel, located a few hundred meters from the Air Products plant, said she heard a "big explosion" shortly before 10 a.m.
"Everyone was scared, but fortunately it was at a time when almost all customers were gone," she told Le Figaro.
A woman at the scene told Le Figaro that security forces have not confined them to the area, but that people have "no desire to go out."
Anti-terror unit in Paris has taken over the investigation. #SaintQuentinFallavierhttps://t.co/sDFaBsLJ6s
— Matthew Bennett (@matthewbennett) June 26, 2015
Air Products is a US industrial group, specializing in industrial and medical gases. It is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The suspect is reportedly well known to the French internal security service.
According to Le Dauphiné Libéré, the man was "beheaded inside the courtyard...his head was allegedly found several dozen meters from his body."
Watch the latest developments on RT:
The man who has been arrested is in his 30s, according to Le Dauphiné Libéré.
"According to the first elements of the investigation, one or more individuals on board a vehicle, drove into the factory. An explosion then occurred," a source close to the matter told AFP.
According to AFP, the decapitated head was found covered with Arabic inscriptions.
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve is expected on site in a few minutes.
Security has been strengthened in Valencia, Romans-sur-Isère and Montelimar in the Drôme, Le Dauphiné libéré reported, following calls from French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
#Isère : attentat dans une usine de gaz #SaintQuentinFallavier. Un homme retrouvé décapité http://t.co/lmYx5PKLA3pic.twitter.com/vUqv3N1XxV
— RT France (@RTenfrancais) June 26, 2015
#SaintQuentinFallavier#Attentat#airproductpic.twitter.com/uMKMEdIUtv
— Avlis Ogaiht (@Kittythug24) June 26, 2015
The head of the decapitated person was found hanging on the fence of the company enclosure.
The suspect was waving a black Islamic flag, Reuters reported.
"The headless body of a person was found near the factory, but it is not known yet if the body was transported on site or not," a source told AFP, citing "a flag with Arabic inscriptions found on site."
#Attentat en Isère : une tête décapitée retrouvée à proximité de l'usine http://t.co/hFp7i9WWyhpic.twitter.com/01zOBGOEQ1
— L'Express (@LEXPRESS) June 26, 2015
One person has been arrested, a source confirmed to BFM TV.
Explosion dans un usine de Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, dans le Nord #Isère, la piste d'un attentat islamiste probable.. pic.twitter.com/RK3eEFmmSS
— France Bleu Isère (@bleu_isere) June 26, 2015
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve immediately traveled to reach the scene.
A decapitated body was deposited at the entrance of the company, next to which an Islamic flag was found, according to source cited by French media. He was not an employee of the factory.
A car drove with force to the checkpoint at the factory, before striking gas cylinders.
A strong blast hit the Air Products gas company at Saint-Quentin-Fallavier in Isère, France, at 09:50 local time on Friday. Several people were injured, BFMTV reported.