One person has been killed in a terror attack at a gas factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, in the Isere area of southeastern France. Several explosions were heard and many others were injured.
A single attacker stormed the building in his car, and exploded several gas canisters that he was carrying with him, according to local media.
The attacker, identified as 25-year-old Yassin Salhi, had been known to security services for a number of years but did not have a criminal record, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told AFP.
According to the minister, a local fireman who rushed to the scene of the attack had overpowered the suspect.
Salhi and his wife have been taken into custody and an anti-terrorist probe has been launched.
The decapitated head was kept in front of the factory gate, and an Islamist flag was found next to it. According to several reports, the victim was not a factory employee.
French President Francois Hollande confirmed that the incident at the factory was a "pure terrorist attack." He said a body had been found, along with a severed head with a message. A suspect had been arrested and identified.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is at the scene in the small town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, between Lyon and Grenoble.
On January 7 this year, the country was shocked when heavily-armed gunmen shouting Islamist slogans stormed the Charlie Hebdo (a satirical newspaper) office in Paris on Wednesday and shot dead 12 people including its editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb.
Some of the best-known cartoonists in France were among the 12 killed in the deadliest attack in France in four decades. Editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, known as Charb, and the cartoonists known as Cabu (Jean Cabu), Tignous (Bernard 'Tignous' Verlhac) and Wolinski (George Wolinski) were killed in the attack on the paper, which gained notoriety for repeatedly publishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, said media reports.
