Horror beheading in France
One man arrested after explosions and gory find
PARIS: A suspected Islamist attacker has pinned a decapitated head covered with Arabic writing to the gates of a gas factory in eastern France before being arrested.
The suspect entered the factory last night and set off several small explosions.
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,” a police source said.
“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.”
Two flags, one white and one black and both with Arabic inscriptions, were found at the scene.
France’s President Francois Hollande said a suspect in the attack had been arrested and identified.
The attack came nearly six months after the Islamist at- tacks in and around Paris that killed 17 people in January that started with a shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Two Islamist brothers attacked the satirical magazine, killing 12.
A policewoman and four hostages in a Jewish supermarket were also killed during the three-day attacks.
The January attacks drew record crowds onto the streets of Paris in a historic “march against terrorism”.
Nearly four million people marched through the streets of France and more than 1.5 million in the French capital along with dozens of world leaders to express defiance in the wake of the attacks.
France has a high proportion of people who have gone to fight alongside Islamists in Iraq and Syria and has been on alert for possible attacks on its soil since the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
Earlier this week, the country passed a controversial new spying law granting authorities sweeping powers to snoop on citizens.