Published: 2015-06-26 15:45:36 BdST
Unknown
persons rammed a car into the premises of a US gas company in southeast
France on Friday, exploding gas containers in an apparent attack which
bore the hallmarks of Islamist militants and left one dead and several
wounded, police sources and French media said.
The
anti-terrorist police branch was deployed to investigate the attack. A
probe has been opened for murder and attempted murder in an organised
group in relation to terrorism, the Paris prosecutor's office said in a
statement.
French media said a decapitated head was found at the site, along with a flag bearing Islamist inscriptions. A police source said he could not confirm the decapitation but said it look as if it was the case. One suspect had been arrested, a local official told BFMTV television.
If confirmed as an attack, it would be the second major such incident in France this year, coming after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in January in attacks on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and a Jewish food store.
The
site belonged to Air Products, a US-based industrial gases technology
company, according to a spokeswoman for Air Liquides, a French company
in the same sector.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was heading to the site in the town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, around 30 km (20 miles) southeast of the city of Lyon.
Local newspaper Le Dauphine said a severed head was found stuck on the site's wire fence. The paper also reported that the attackers forced their way on to the grounds of the company shortly before 10 am (0800 GMT) and spun around trying to hit gas containers.
It also said the head was also covered in Arabic writing. One suspect had been arrested and was already known to French intelligence sources, one of the sources said.
French media said a decapitated head was found at the site, along with a flag bearing Islamist inscriptions. A police source said he could not confirm the decapitation but said it look as if it was the case. One suspect had been arrested, a local official told BFMTV television.
If confirmed as an attack, it would be the second major such incident in France this year, coming after Islamist gunmen killed 17 people in January in attacks on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly and a Jewish food store.
The
site belonged to Air Products, a US-based industrial gases technology
company, according to a spokeswoman for Air Liquides, a French company
in the same sector.French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was heading to the site in the town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, around 30 km (20 miles) southeast of the city of Lyon.
Local newspaper Le Dauphine said a severed head was found stuck on the site's wire fence. The paper also reported that the attackers forced their way on to the grounds of the company shortly before 10 am (0800 GMT) and spun around trying to hit gas containers.
It also said the head was also covered in Arabic writing. One suspect had been arrested and was already known to French intelligence sources, one of the sources said.
