Isre, France attack: 1 beheaded, 2 injured at gas factory

A truck driver once under surveillance for radical Islamic ties crashed into an American-owned chemical warehouse in southeastern France on Friday and hung his employer's severed head on a factory gate, along with banners with Arabic inscriptions, officials say.

The attack, which triggered an explosion that wounded two people, came on a day of violence that spanned three continents.

The suspect is the latest French citizen implicated in extremist bloodshed in recent years after being flagged to authorities, then falling off the radar. Police were put on higher alert in the Lyon area after the assault, which revived fearful memories of attacks in January on a kosher market and satirical newspaper that left 20 dead.

"Islamist terrorism has again struck France," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said

The factory attack came on the same day as a gunman mowed down scores of tourists on a beach in Tunisia and a suicide bomber killed over two dozen worshippers at a Shiamosque in Kuwait. All three attacks were condemned by the United Nations, Canada,the United States, Israel and others.

• Kuwait Shia mosque bombing after Friday prayers kills 25
• Tunisia hotel attacker kills at least 28, mostly tourists

The French attack began about 9:30 a.m., when Yassine Salhi drove a utility truck to the gate of the Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, southeast of Lyon, authorities said.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said Salhi was known to factory staff because he regularly made deliveries there, and they let him in the gate. Once beyond the sight of security cameras, Salhi plowed his truck into gas canisters in a factory warehouse, touching off an explosion, Molins said

A knife and the decapitated body of Salhi's employer were found at the site of the explosion, and the severed head was posted on a gate at the factory entrance with two flags bearing proclamations of Islamic faith, the prosecutor said.

Firefighters apprehended Salhi, and he was in custody Friday night along with his wife, sister and another person, while police sweeps of the vehicle and the suspect's apartment were continuing, the prosecutor said.

Authorities described Salhi as a father of three who was married for more than 10 years, and who had been monitored for links to radical Islam from 2006-2008. "He continued to attract the attention of intelligence services from time to time from 2011 to 2014 for his links to the Salafist movement in the Lyon region," Molins said.

Known to factory personnel

French President Francois Hollande raised the security alert for the southeastern region to its highest level for the next three days. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security was tightened at religious sites around the country.

Three French officials said the man who was decapitated ran a local transportation company that employed Salhi. The victim's name was not released. One official said the businessman was believed to have been killed before the attack on the factory. The officials were not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity

Hollande said the key question was determining whether there were any accomplices.

Others, including Salhi's wife, were seen on television being taken into custody from his apartment building in the Lyon suburb of Saint Priest hours after the attack.

The gas factory belongs to Air Products, an American chemical company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company said all its employees had been accounted for and were evacuated from the premises but did not say if any had been injured.

"The site is secure. Our crisis and emergency response teams have been activated and are working closely with all relevant authorities," the company said in a statement.

Air Products makes gases used by a wide range of industries, including food production, medicine and the oil and gas. It has more than 20,000 employees in 50 countries, mostly in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

A French security official said the suspect apparently miscalculated about how explosive the chemicals he smashed into would be. Hollande said a major explosion appeared to be the goal.

Security officials say they are increasingly worrying as much about disaffected people attacking alone or in pairs after becoming inspired by jihadi propaganda online as they do about attacks organized by terror groups.

France went on high alert in January after attacks against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery store and a policewoman that left 20 people dead in the Paris region, including three Islamic extremist attackers.

Since then, fears of copycat attacks have risen. One person was arrested in April after authorities said he was plotting to gun down people in churches in the Paris region.