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Suspected Islamist Attack At U.S. Factory In France
French President Francois Hollande stated 1 person was decapitated and 2 injured in an evident terror attack on a U.S.-owned factory in his country Friday.
The attack happened shortly before 10 a.m. local time when a car crashed through the gates of the Air Products plant in southeastern France’s town of Saint-Quentin Fallavier. Officials explained that set off an explosion.
Hollande stated a suspect had been arrested and there was “no doubt” that the attacker – possibly acting with an accomplice – meant to blow up the whole plant.
The president – who told reporters that the decapitated body was found with “inscriptions” on it – explained the attack bore the hallmarks of terrorism, adding that security has been stepped up at vulnerable sites in France.
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve informed reporters at the scene that the suspect was known to authorities and had earlier been investigated for radicalization but surveillance ended in 2008.
An interior ministry official earlier informed NBC News that an explosion took place after a car drove onto the scene.
The severed head was discovered hanging on a fence along a close by road, as outlined by local newspaper La Dauphine Libere, which stated that an Islamist flag also was identified nearby.
Air Products stated the situation at the site had been “contained” and that all its employees had been cleared out from the site and accounted for.
“The site is secure,” the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based company stated in a statement. “Our crisis and emergency response teams have been activated and are working closely with all relevant authorities.”
The beheaded person was not a worker at the factory, Le Monde noted, citing prosecutors.
France has been on high alert following the deadly January episode on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.
Hollande, who declared he was returning early from a European summit in Brussels, spoke of “the necessity to protect our values and never give in to fear and not to create any unnecessary division and suspicions [which] would be intolerable and unacceptable.”
Air Products supplies industrial gases to businesses and employs more than 20,000 people in 50 countries, based on its website.
Source: http://fusionlacedillusions.com/2015/06/26/suspected-islamist-attack-at-u-s-factory-in-france/
