SAINT-QUENTIN-FALLAVIER, France — A truck driver once under surveillance for radical Islamic ties crashed into an American-owned chemical warehouse in southeastern France on Friday and hung his employer’s severed head on a factory gate, along with banners with Arabic inscriptions.
The attack triggered an explosion that wounded two people.
The suspect, Yassine Salhi, who was apprehended soon after setting off the blast, is the latest French citizen implicated in terrorist bloodshed in recent years after being flagged to authorities then falling off the radar. Police were put on higher alert in the Lyon area after the assault, which revived fearful memories of attacks in January on a kosher market and a satirical newspaper that left 20 dead.
“Islamist terrorism has again struck France,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.
The severed head appeared to mimic the Islamic State terrorist group’s practice of beheading prisoners.
