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| France attack: François Hollande holds second crisis summit | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| French president François Hollande held a second emergency defence council meeting on Saturday after the decapitation of a company boss in the south east of France and the attacks in Tunisia. | French president François Hollande held a second emergency defence council meeting on Saturday after the decapitation of a company boss in the south east of France and the attacks in Tunisia. |
| Hollande dashed back from an official visit in Brussels and prime minister Manuel Valls cut short a visit to South America to return to Paris for the crisis summit that followed the raising of the country’s security alert. | Hollande dashed back from an official visit in Brussels and prime minister Manuel Valls cut short a visit to South America to return to Paris for the crisis summit that followed the raising of the country’s security alert. |
| Valls warned that France faced more attacks after the gruesome killing on Friday that came less than six months after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris that left 17 people, including two police officers, dead. | Valls warned that France faced more attacks after the gruesome killing on Friday that came less than six months after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris that left 17 people, including two police officers, dead. |
| “It’s difficult for a society to live for years under the threat of attack,” he told French journalists. “The question is not if there will be another attack … but when.” | “It’s difficult for a society to live for years under the threat of attack,” he told French journalists. “The question is not if there will be another attack … but when.” |
| Police were still questioning suspected attacker Yassin Salhi and three members of his family, including his wife, who were taken into custody on Friday. | Police were still questioning suspected attacker Yassin Salhi and three members of his family, including his wife, who were taken into custody on Friday. |
| In Tunisia, the death toll from the attack on tourists at a beach and luxury hotel, was said to have reached 39 people, including eight Britons. | |
| Locals in the small village of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near where the Frenchman was decapitated, reportedly by one of his employees, held a minute’s silence as more details of the gruesome French assassination emerged. | Locals in the small village of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near where the Frenchman was decapitated, reportedly by one of his employees, held a minute’s silence as more details of the gruesome French assassination emerged. |
| Salhi, a 35-year-old father of three, is suspected to have driven to the Air Products depot at Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, a short drive from Lyon, in a Peugeot Boxer around 9.28am local time on Friday. | Salhi, a 35-year-old father of three, is suspected to have driven to the Air Products depot at Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, a short drive from Lyon, in a Peugeot Boxer around 9.28am local time on Friday. |
| The suspect then allegedly rang at the gate of the depot belonging to the US-based company, which stocked liquid gas for industrial use, and showed a badge that gave him the authority to enter into the first security zone. | The suspect then allegedly rang at the gate of the depot belonging to the US-based company, which stocked liquid gas for industrial use, and showed a badge that gave him the authority to enter into the first security zone. |
| Salhi had become known to police in 2006 after attending meetings held by a radical preacher in the Doubs area of west France where he was born, and was placed on a security watch list classed as Fiche S (for “state security”). He was rated at 13 on a scale of 16, but his name appears to have been dropped when the list was renewed two years later. He had no criminal record. | Salhi had become known to police in 2006 after attending meetings held by a radical preacher in the Doubs area of west France where he was born, and was placed on a security watch list classed as Fiche S (for “state security”). He was rated at 13 on a scale of 16, but his name appears to have been dropped when the list was renewed two years later. He had no criminal record. |
| CCTV cameras show the driver suddenly accelerating into a second gate around a more protected area and ramming into gas tanks. Injured in the crash, he managed to get out of his car and ran into a covered hanger filled with bottles of liquid air, gaz and acetone. | CCTV cameras show the driver suddenly accelerating into a second gate around a more protected area and ramming into gas tanks. Injured in the crash, he managed to get out of his car and ran into a covered hanger filled with bottles of liquid air, gaz and acetone. |
| He then opened the valves on the bottles before trying to set them alight, when firefighters arrived. | He then opened the valves on the bottles before trying to set them alight, when firefighters arrived. |
| After an explosion and the start of a fire, an emergency firefighter confronted the suspect at around 10am and attempted to stop him by grappling him to the ground and holding him until local gendarmes could arrive. | After an explosion and the start of a fire, an emergency firefighter confronted the suspect at around 10am and attempted to stop him by grappling him to the ground and holding him until local gendarmes could arrive. |
| As they pulled up at the depot, gendarmes were horrified to find a decapitated head attached by a chain to a gate inside the depot, covered with two large black-and-white banners covered in Arab writing that appeared to correspond to the shahada (the Muslim profession of faith). | As they pulled up at the depot, gendarmes were horrified to find a decapitated head attached by a chain to a gate inside the depot, covered with two large black-and-white banners covered in Arab writing that appeared to correspond to the shahada (the Muslim profession of faith). |
| Near the Peugeot Boxer, which had been seriously damaged by the gas explosion, lay the headless body. A knife was found nearby. | Near the Peugeot Boxer, which had been seriously damaged by the gas explosion, lay the headless body. A knife was found nearby. |
| Related: France attack: terror inquiry launched and suspect arrested – as it happened | Related: France attack: terror inquiry launched and suspect arrested – as it happened |
| The victim was named as Hervé Cornara, aged 54, the commercial director of ATC Transport, a delivery company where Salhi worked as a driver since March. Police said it appeared the victim had been decapitated before Salhi drove into the depot. | The victim was named as Hervé Cornara, aged 54, the commercial director of ATC Transport, a delivery company where Salhi worked as a driver since March. Police said it appeared the victim had been decapitated before Salhi drove into the depot. |
| While beheading is a trademark of Islamic State (Isis), investigators have not confirmed whether the suspect had direct links or strong sympathies with the Islamist terror group. | While beheading is a trademark of Islamic State (Isis), investigators have not confirmed whether the suspect had direct links or strong sympathies with the Islamist terror group. |
| The Air Products site was on the EU Seveso list, meaning it contained potentially risky industrial material, but that the hazard was limited. | The Air Products site was on the EU Seveso list, meaning it contained potentially risky industrial material, but that the hazard was limited. |
| Salhi was born 25 March, 1980 to a Moroccan-born mother and an Algerian-born father, who was a factory worker. According to Le Parisien, the family showed no signs of religious fervour until after the father died of a heart attack and the mother started wearing a headscarf and her sons allegedly grew beards. Shortly afterwards, the mother returned to Morocco. | |
| The local newspaper L’Est Républicain reported that at the beginning of the 2000s, Salhi became close to a radical Islamic preacher at Pontarlier, in Doubs, who was nicknamed “Grand Ali”. Ali, an Islamic convert, was suspected of involvement in an attack in Indonesia. In 2004, Salhi came to the attention of the intelligence services, and was placed on the Fiche S for his alleged radicalisation and “links to a Salafist movement”. This Fichier Swas dropped in 2008. | |
| Salhi and his wife and three children moved briefly to Besançon, the capital of the Doubs, where he was said to continue to meet with Salafis, then to Saint Priest near Lyon. His colleagues and neighbours said he never spoke about religion. | |
| Because of his continued connections with Salafis, his name was picked up again by the French intelligence services in 2013 and 2014. The Direction Générale de la Sécurite (DGSE), France’s internal intelligence service, apparently wanted to put his telephone under surveillance, but could not find any line registered to him or any member of his family. | |
| There is no evidence or suggestion as yet his wife or sister knew anything about the attack at Air Products. | |
| The US-based head of Air Products, Seifi Ghasemi, expressed “all his sympathy for the victim of the attack” on Saturday. | |
| “I am horrified and terribly saddened by this attack on one of our plants in France. I think I speak for all staff at Air Products across the world in expressing our profound sympathy for the family of the victim of this undescribable act,” Ghasemi said. |