As attention focuses to events in Tunisia and Kuwait, we are going to bring this blog to close for now. You can follow the latest here.
A French security official has confirmed to AP, that the man whose severed head was found hanging at the gate of the factory has been identified as a local businessman.
The security official, who was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity, said the victim was the head of a local transportation company and was believed to have been killed before the explosion. His name was not released.
Authorities had said his body was found near the site of the attack.
Yassin Sahli’s wife has also been arrested, according to AFP citing a legal source.
#BREAKING Wife of France gas factory attack suspect held: legal source
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) June 26, 2015
Scotland Yard said it was “monitoring the situation” after the attacks in Tunisia and France, writes Vikram Dodd.
It said it constantly reviews security and urged the public to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious. It said the threat level to the UK from international terrorism remained “severe” , which means an attack remains highly likely.
Our error about the other suspects being killed was based on mistranslation, according to reader Christian Müller.
The verb the interior minister used was “neutraliser”, and referred to the fireman apprehending the (so far) only suspect, who was then arrested.
Apologies for the confusion.
Correction
There is now uncertainty about whether one of the attackers was killed in the incident.
Our earlier report that one of the suspects was killed was based on a press conference given by France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
According to a translation from BBC News Cazeneuve said: “The alleged author of this crime had been killed after he had committed his crime. He had been killed by one person from security who had the courage and cold blood to confront this individual. This firefighter I would like to express to him my thanks for the speed of their intervention.”
We now think this may have been a mistranslation. AFP said Cazeneuve was referring to a firefighter who overpowered and “neutralised” Salhi, the arrested suspect.
“I would like to offer my deepest thanks to the firefighter and his colleagues who came to the scene for their promptness and effectiveness,” AFP quoted him saying.
There is also uncertainty about the man who was decapitated, as Reuters points out.
It was not known whether the victim, so far the only known fatality in the incident that also injured two people, was decapitated before or after the car smashed into the building, or whether the victim had been on site at the time of the attack, or killed elsewhere.
Updated
France’s prime minister, Manuel Valls, said today’s attack was act of “Islamist terrorism,” announcing he was cutting short a visit to South America to deal with the crisis, AFP reports.
“Islamist terrorism has hit France again,” Manuel Valls told a press conference in Colombia’s capital Bogota, adding that he would take part by telephone in an emergency meeting called by President Francois Hollande, then rush back to France.
Valls described the assault as appalling and said it “shows that the jihadist threat remains very high.”
David Cameron has condemned today’s attack and the killing of at least 27 people in Tunisia.
He said the attacks were carried out in the name of a “twisted and perverted ideology that we have to confront with everything that we have”. He pointed out that Islam was a religion of peace.
Speaking at the EU summit in Brussels he added: “We must stop the poisoning of these young minds in our country and other European countries and around the world.”
Updated
A few more details have emerged about the arrested suspect, according to Reuters who spells his name as Yassin Sahli.
French media said Sahli was a 35-year-old professional driver who lived in the Lyon suburb. There was no official confirmation of that, Reuters pointed out.
According, again, to the Dauphiné Libéré newspaper, the decapitated victim has been identified as the manager of a transport company based in Chassieu, about 20 miles from the attack. He was attacked at the Air Products factory after coming for a delivery, the paper said, not naming the victim.
In 2012 a man named Yassine Salhi, the believed identity of the attacker in custody, was reported to have hurled anti-semitic abuse at a Jewish teenager on a train travelling from Toulouse to Lyon. According to the report on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency website, Salhi and another man, both of north African descent, also exchanged blows with the teenager. The JTA report said that the case was being investigated by French prosecutors. It is unclear if it ever went to court.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of what we know so far:
- France has launched a terrorism investigation after police found a decapitated body and a flag with Islamist inscriptions after two men attacked a factory near Lyon.
- One of the suspected attackers was arrested and named as 35-year-old Yassine Sali. He was known to the security forces over suspected links to to a Salifist group, but has no criminal record.
- A decapitated body found at the scene had a message written on it. The victim has not been named. Two other people were injured. Islamic flags were also found at the scene.
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The factory belonged to Air Products, a US company based in Pennsylvania, which supplies gases, chemicals and associated equipment. It said all of its employees were accounted for.
- France’s president, François Hollande condemned what he called “a terror attack”. He is due to hold an emergency meeting in Paris after exiting early from an EU summit in Brussels.
This post has been changed after we incorrectly stated that one of the suspects was killed in the incident.
Updated
According to the Dauphiné Libéré newspaper a second suspect has been arrested, at his home in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier.
He is believed to be a man seen driving around near the factory in a Ford car before the attack, a suspected reconnaissance attempt, the paper said.
The arrested suspect Yacinne Sali, is a 35-year-old, who was in “in contact with a salafist movement”, Cazeneuve’s statement said.
He was described as living in the Lyon area at Saint-Priest. “He had been noted for his radicalisation, but was not known to have any links to terrorist figures,” Cazeneuve added.
Here’s the full statement from Air Products the owners of the factory that was attacked:
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.
Emergency services are on site and have contained the situation. The site is secure. Our crisis and emergency response teams have been activated and are working closely with all relevant authorities.
Further information will be released as soon as it becomes available.
Angelique Chrisafis gauges the immediate political reaction in Paris.
The French political class, still reeling from the bloody terrorist attacks on the magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Paris Kosher supermarket nearly six months ago, has for months been engaged in heated debate on surveillance powers and national security.
Both the right and left had been stressing the ongoing terrorist threat and the country’s security services had been on high-alert. Today’s attack on the factory in Isère brought immediate political reaction, with all parties stressing France should not give in to fear.
On the right, Alain Juppé, a former prime minister from Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing Les Républicains, who is challenging Sarkozy to be 2017 presidential candidate, tweeted “The terrorist threat is at maximum. The Isere attacks is alas a reminder. The state must do everything to protect its citizens.”
La menace terroriste est maximum. L'attentat en Isère nous le rappelle hélas! L'Etat doit tout mettre en œuvre pour protéger ses citoyens.
— Alain Juppé (@alainjuppe) June 26, 2015
Sarkozy later issued a statement saying “The Republic will never give in to terrorist barbarism.”
The Socialist party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadélis tweeted his “great emotion” after the attack and the way in which it happened. He said “Let’s stay united”, “We must not play on fears.”
Grande émotion devant cet attentat et son mode opératoire. Restons unis. Pas d'amalgames. Ne jouons pas sur les peurs. #Isère
— Jean-Chr. Cambadélis (@jccambadelis) June 26, 2015
The far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen immediately demanded “strong measures” to “combat islamism”.
The identity of the arrested suspect is still to be verified, but he is thought to be Yassine Sali, Cazeneuve confirmed.
“This person was under investigation for radicalisation but this investigation was not renewed in 2008. He had no police record,” the minister said.
Cazeneuve praised the courage of the firefighter who killed the other suspect.
The arrested suspect was “under the radar” of the security services, Cazeneuve says. Flags were found at the scene, he confirms.
Various spellings are being given for the name of the arrested man.
French interior minister @bCazeneuve names suspect in #Isere attack as Yacine Sali -known to police. Was on security watch list.
— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) June 26, 2015
Cazeneuve said the police opened a file on the arrested man in 2006, over suspected links with a radical Salafist group. The surveillance was stopped in 2008, he added.
One attacker killed
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve is making a statement at the scene. An anti terrorist investigation is under way, he says. He names the arrested suspect as Yassine Salim.
The other suspect was killed in the attack by a firefighter.
Updated
Here’s Hollande’s statement at the EU summit in Brussels.
All of the employees at the factory have been accounted for, according to a statement from Air Products.
Meanwhile, the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, has been meeeting members of the emergency services at the scene.
#Isère @BCazeneuve à St-Quentin Fallavier avec les personnels de secours présents sur le site l'attaque terroriste pic.twitter.com/fW10YPUV7t
— Ministère Intérieur (@Place_Beauvau) June 26, 2015
Updated
The factory where the attack took place is owned by Air Products, a US company, headquartered in Pennsylvania, writes Haroon Siddique.
The company supplies gases, chemicals and equipment for products ranging from TVs and mobile phones to sports cars and running shoes.
Air Products was founded in 1940 and has grown to be the 276th largest company in the US with $10.4bn of global sales last year. It employs more than 20,000 people in 50 countries. Its French subsidiary was created in 1990 and it employs 400 people in the country across a number of sites. It is the third largest producer of atmospheric gases in France, with more than 15% of national production.
Updated
In his statement, Hollande confirmed that the attack happened just before 10am local time when two suspects drove into the factory. He said they attacked the factory “using gas canisters”.
Here’s a translation of what he said:
We have no doubt the attack was intended to blow up the building. The attack bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack. A decapitated body was found with inscriptions written on it. There was one dead and two injured. The interior minister went to the scene immediately. The suspect who carried out this attack was arrested and identified.”
He did not give any details about the second attacker.
Updated
Speaking in Brussels, Hollande says fellow European leaders have all expressed their solidarity with France after the attacks. He confirms he is due to head back to Paris after his statement.
Updated
Hollande says two attackers drove into the factory. “The attack bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” he said. He confirms that a body was found at the scene with inscriptions on it. Two others were injured. The attackers were trying to blow up the plant, Hollande said.
One person was arrested and had been identified, he said.
Updated
Hollande will return home early from the EU summit, an official has confirmed to AFP.
“He will return early this afternoon and is in constant contact with interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve and the security services,” the official said, adding that he would make a statement to the press in Brussels.
“The president saw the first images of the attack on the 24-hour news channels with German chancellor Angela Merkel beside him, who was visibly shocked,” an official added.
Updated
Officials in France have suggested that the head had been brought to the scene, according to reports in the French media.
ÉDITION SPÉCIALE | "Des élus avancent l'hypothèse que la personne décapitée ait pu être amenée sur les lieux" Gérard Fourgeaud, Bleu Isère
— France Info (@franceinfo) June 26, 2015
Updated
A live blog about the incident on the website of the local newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré has several snippets of information, mainly from unidentified sources, writes Peter Walker.
The blog says the severed head found at the scene was on a fence near the factory, and had Arabic writing on it. The blog quotes security sources as saying “all the signals were on red for a possible attack of this type”.
Updated
Here is an aerial view of the scene.
Updated
David Cameron has condemned the attack as “appalling” and expressed his sympathies to Hollande, PA reports.
#Breaking David Cameron has expressed sympathies to Francois Hollande over the "appalling" terror attack near Grenoble, Downing St said
— Press Association (@PA) June 26, 2015
Here is a map of the scene.
Updated
Hollande is due to make a statement in Brussels. You can follow it here:
Updated
President François Hollande is to make an early exit from the EU summit in Brussels following the attack, according to unconfirmed reports.
Reports French President Hollande leaving Brussels to return to Paris after beheading near Lyon #France
— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) June 26, 2015
Meanwhile, interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who was already in the area, is reported to have arrived at the scene.
#Attentat #Isere : les journalistes attendent Bernard Cazeneuve d'ici une 10aine de minutes pour une déclaration pic.twitter.com/JbsrHnJ5Oz
— France Bleu Isère (@bleu_isere) June 26, 2015
Updated
Terrorism investigation opened
The French authorities have opened a terrorism investigation following the attack, AP reports. It said two attackers were involved, citing officials.
Two French officials said the attack began mid-morning when two men crashed a car into the entrance of a gas factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier in south-eastern France, hitting gas canisters and touching off an explosion.
One of the attackers was arrested, they said. It was unclear what happened to the other attacker.
In a statement, France’s anti-terror prosecutor said an investigation was opened into the attack, which he said was carried out by “a terrorist group”.
Updated
Police sources have told AFP that the severed head was covered with Arabic writing.
The suspect entered the factory and set off several small explosive devices, the source said.
Police said it was unclear whether the attacker was acting alone, or had accomplices.
“According to the initial findings of the inquiry, one or several individuals on board a vehicle drove into the factory. An explosion then took place,” said one of the sources.
“The decapitated body of a person was found nearby the factory but we do not yet know whether the body was transported to the place or not,” added this source, adding that a “flag with Arabic writing on it was found at the scene”.
A man thought to be the person who carried out the attack has been arrested, according to sources close to the inquiry, who said he was known to the security services.
French prime minister Manuel Valls ordered increased security measures at all sensitive sites in the area.
Updated
What we know so far
Welcome to live updates on the aftermath of an apparent Islamist attack at a factory near Lyon in south-east France, where a decapitated body was found.
Here’s what we know so far:
- Police say an attacker was carrying an Islamist flag when he killed one person and injured several others at an Air Products plant in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon.
- The decapitated body of a man was found near the factory.
- Several explosions occurred when a vehicle was driven into the factory.
- One man has been arrested at Saint-Quentin-Fallavier.
- France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve is travelling to the scene.
- The attack comes almost six months after deadly Islamist attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Updated
