Post by Admin on Jun 26, 2015 13:55:31 GMT
France attack: Man decapitated in attack near Lyon
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33284937
France has begun a terror investigation after a decapitated body and Islamist flags were found at the scene of an attack on a US-owned gas factory near the south-eastern city of Lyon.
One arrested man suspected to have rammed a car into the factory had been investigated over possible ties to Islamic radicals, officials said.
President Francois Hollande said the aim was to blow up the factory.
Officials say the decapitated person was a local businessman.
His head was found on a post at the gates to the Air Products gas factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier.
No further details have been released of the circumstances around his death.
Live updates: France beheading attack
At a press conference, Mr Hollande confirmed that two attackers had targeted the chemicals factory at around 10:00 local time (08:00 GMT).
He said a car made it through the factory gates before ploughing into gas canisters, sparking an explosion that injured two people.
"We have no doubt that the attack was to blow up the building. It bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack," he said.
Referring to the terrorist attacks in and around Paris that killed 17 people in January, he said: "We all remember what happened before in our country. There is therefore a lot of emotion."
Mr Hollande left the EU summit in Brussels to return to France.
Speaking from the scene, France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said one arrested suspect had been under investigation between 2006 and 2008.
He said the suspect is believed to be a 35-year-old man named as Yacine Sali.
"This person was under investigation for radicalisation but this investigation was not renewed in 2008. He had no police record," Mr Cazeneuve said.
According to France's Dauphine Libere newspaper, a second suspect arrested at his home in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier is believed to be a man who was seen driving back and forth past the factory before the attack.
A spokesman for Air Products said: "We can confirm that an incident occurred at our facility in L'Isle-d'Abeau, France this morning.
"Our priority at this stage is to take care of our employees, who have been evacuated from the site and all accounted for."
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has ordered that security be stepped up at sensitive sites around Lyon.
Alain Juppe, the mayor of Bordeaux, took to Twitter to condemn the attack.
"The terrorist threat is at a maximum," he said, adding that France "must make every effort to protect its citizens".
1 dead in France terror attack, severed head found with message
By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
Updated 8:51 AM ET, Fri June 26, 2015
www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/europe/france-attack/
a second suspect was from Saint-Quentin-Fallavier
(a reference to San Quentin Prison?)
London (CNN)[Latest developments]
• The U.S. chemical firm whose factory was attacked says all its employees are accounted for; the attack victim has not yet been publicly identified.
• The suspect is "somebody who was in touch with (Muslim fundamentalist) Salafists," French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.
• The man had been under surveillance but was not previously involved in terrorist activities, he said.
• French authorities are "investigating any other people that could be accomplices," Cazeneuve said.
• French President Francois Hollande confirmed that the incident at a factory in southeastern France was a "pure terrorist attack."
• Hollande said a body had been found, along with a severed head with a message. He said a suspect has been arrested and identified.
[Full story]
One person has been beheaded and two people injured in a terrorist attack at a gas factory near Lyon in southeastern France, French President Francois Hollande said Friday.
The suspect's contacts with Muslim fundamentalists, and reports that Islamist flags or writings were found at the scene, point to an Islamist extremist motive.
The shocking incident comes on the same day as both Tunisia and Kuwait were hit by terrorist attacks, the latter an apparent blast at a Shiite mosque claimed by ISIS.
In Tunisia, at least 19 people were killed in the assault on a beachfront hotel in Sousse, Tunisia's interior minister said, according to the state-run TAP news agency.
In a televised address from a summit in Brussels, Belgium, Hollande called the French incident a "pure terrorist attack."
Hollande said a body had been found, along with a severed head with a message. A suspect has been arrested and identified, he said.
The victim of what Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve described as a "barbarous" attack has not yet been publicly identified. U.S. firm Air Products & Chemicals, which owns the factory, said all its employees were accounted for.
Cazeneuve, speaking at the scene of the attack, said the suspect, who was from the Lyon area, was "somebody who was in touch with (Muslim fundamentalist) Salafists."
An intelligence report was opened on the man in 2006 because of suspected radicalization, he said, but this was not renewed in 2008.
"He has been under surveillance, but he was not known as being involved in any terrorist act," Cazeneuve said. French authorities are "investigating any other people that could be accomplices," he added.
"The dangerous elements were neutralized immediately after the crime was committed," he said.
Cazeneuve said flags had been found at the site but that their text has not yet been translated. He did not specify what language was written on the banners.
The attack took place just before 10 a.m. (4 a.m. ET), Hollande said, when a vehicle was driven at high speed "by one individual, maybe with another individual" into the factory site and into a building housing gas canisters.
"There is no doubt that the intention was to provoke an attack, an explosion," he said.
Hollande expressed his condolences and solidarity with the people who were attacked.
The U.S. chemical firm at the center of the attack
Witness: Islamist flags
French news agency AFP earlier reported that a suspected Islamist attacker pinned a severed head covered with Arabic writing to the gates of the factory, in an industrial area in the small town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, between Lyon and Grenoble.
A source cited by BFMTV also said a severed head had been put in front of the company, next to which was found an Islamist flag. CNN has not been able to confirm the report independently.
A man described as a witness, whose name was given as Patrice, also told BFMTV that a group of men carrying Islamist flags forced their way into the factory, beheaded a person and targeted gas tanks.
Le Monde newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying that two people rammed a vehicle into the building, causing the explosion. Banners in Arabic that haven't yet been examined were found at the scene, the paper added.
The Paris prosecutor's office said its anti-terrorism section was opening an investigation into the attack.
It is investigating possible murder and assassination attempts by organized gangs in relation to a terrorist enterprise; destruction and degradation resulting from explosive materials by organized gangs in relation to a terrorist enterprise; and terrorist conspiracy to commit crimes against people, the Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Security stepped up
Air Products & Chemicals said in statement that its priority was to take care of its employees, "who have been evacuated from the site and all accounted for."
Emergency services have contained the situation, the company said. "The site is secure. Our crisis and emergency response teams have been activated and are working closely with all relevant authorities."
A spokeswoman for the company, Nicola Long, earlier said there had been an explosion and a fire that was extinguished.
She was not able to give any information on any deaths or injuries. The company supplies gases for industrial use.
Security has been heightened in France since an Islamist terror attack in January, when attackers targeted the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris.
CNN's Sandrine Amiel, Sarah Oulahna and Alanna Petroff contributed to this report.