SAINT-QUENTIN FALLAVIER, FRANCE - A delivery man with known Islamist connections beheaded his boss and left the body, daubed with Arabic writing, at the site of a U.S.-owned gas factory in southeast Francebefore trying to blow up the complex.
The assailant rammed his delivery van into a warehouse containing gas canisters, triggering an initial explosion, and was arrested minutes later as he tried to open canisters containing flammable chemicals, prosecutors said on Friday.
Police found the head of the victim, the 54-year-old manager of the transport firm that employed the suspect, dangling from a fence.
"The head was discovered hanging on the factory's wire fence, framed by two flags that included references to the shahada, or (Muslim) profession of faith," Paris public prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference.
France is still coming to terms with attacks by Islamist gunmen who killed 17 people in January at a satirical weekly newspaper and a Jewish food store.
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The latest attack occurred on the same day that a gunman killed at least 37 people at a Tunisian beachside hotel and an Islamic State suicide bomber killed two dozen and wounded more than 200 at a mosque in Kuwait.
"There is no other link other than to say that terrorism is our common enemy," said President Francois Hollande, returning to Paris from an EU summit in Brussels.
"There should be no doubt as to our country's ability to protect itself and remain vigilant," he said, announcing a tightening of national security to levels he said were unprecedented in recent decades.
Hollande said there were inscriptions on the headless body, and police sources said they were in Arabic, but officials did not reveal their content.
FATHER OF THREE
No group claimed responsibility for the French attack and the motive was unknown.
The attacker was injured in the blast and arrested on the site. His wife, sister and a third person were taken into custody for questioning.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve named the suspect as Yassin Sahli. He said Sahli did not have a criminal record but had been under surveillance from 2006 to 2008 on suspicion of having become radicalized by Islamist associates.
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The attack occurred at an industrial zone near the town of Saint-Quentin Fallavier to the south of the city of Lyon. Its air, rail and road links have made it one of Europe's major logistics hubs, with through-traffic of 5,000 trucks a day.
Sources close to the investigation said Sahli was a 35-year-old professional driver who lived in the Lyon suburbs. Europe 1 radio interviewed a woman they identified as his wife.
"In the morning he left for work and didn't come home between noon and 2. I was waiting for him," she told Europe 1 radio, saying she and her family of three children lived normal lives as Muslims. "My heart is about to give out."
French television filming outside Sahli's apartment showed pictures of police leading out a woman, her head covered by a blanket, into a waiting car. Forensic police were carrying out searches on the ground-floor apartment.
"They are a very normal family," a neighbor who gave her name as Brigitte said. "I only talked with madame, he didn't say hello or goodbye," the 46-year-old housewife told Reuters.
