A MAN beheaded by an attacker wielding an Islamist flag in a terror attack at a chemical factory in France is believed to be the suspect’s boss.
The victim’s head was found 30ft from the corpse “hanging on a gate” daubed with Arabic writing on it, it is claimed.
The identity of the murdered businessman, thought to be the manager of a delivery company which owned the vehicle used in the attack, has not been released.
Alleged attacker Yacine Sali, 35, was arrested close to the scene by a hero firefighter who had arrived to tackle the blaze which had broken out at the factory in Lyon, France.
A female suspect, thought to be Sali’s wife, was also pictured being led away from a block of flats by heavily-armed anti-terror cops hours after this morning’s attack.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Sali had previously been investigated for radicalisation and links to the Salafist movement.
He said: “He was investigated in 2006 for radicalisation, but (the probe) was not renewed in 2008. He had no criminal record.”
It remains unclear whether there was a second attacker involved in the incident, French President Francois Hollande said.
At least two people were wounded in the incident which started when the suspect rammed the factory with a car and set off explosives, according to reports.
The driver carried out a series of handbrake skids in the courtyard of the building before attempting to make gas cannisters explode by driving into them.
The suspect then jumped out of the vehicle, grabbed a petrified visitor to the compound and hacked off his head.
President Hollande said the atrocity had “all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack” as he raced back to the country from the EU summit.
Speaking in Brussels, he said: “A decapitated body was found with inscription written on it. There is one dead and two injured.
“The attack was carried out from a vehicle driven by one person, perhaps accompanied by another, which rammed its way at high speed into this establishment which contained bottles of gas.”
The president added that France would “never give in to fear” and the attack must not “create unnecessary division”.
Former French president Nikolas Sarkozy said the attackers have “declared war against France, democracy, and civilisation itself”.
Horrified staff at Air Products cowered in a staff room while the terrorist drove around the plant looking for more victims.
The site belonged to the US-based industrial gases technology company, which has more than 20,000 employees, and has supplied gas to NASA space programmes, including the Space Shuttle.
The company said all of its employees are accounted for after the attack.
Two flags – both with Arabic inscriptions – were found at the scene in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier.
A huge blast was heard by witnesses shortly before the decapitated body was discovered at the site along with a flag bearing Islamist inscriptions.
The arrested man is refusing to talk to anti-terror cops, according to a French broadcaster.
There are fears the number of victims could rise following the attack which started at 10am today 350 miles from the French capital Paris.
British PM David Cameron expressed his sympathies to French President Francois Hollande at the EU summit over what Downing Street described as an “appalling incident”.
France’s PM has vowed to tighten security measures on ‘sensitive’ sites following the horrific attack.
Local MP Joelle Huillier said: “It is definitely a terror attack. I am terrified, no one is safe.”
The attack comes five months after 17 people were killed at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris.
Terrorists targeted the offices of the satirical magazine – killing 12 including editor Franck Brinsolaro – in the massacre which took place on January 7.
Fanatic Amedy Coulibaly then held terrified shoppers hostage in an attack a day later which left four others dead.
Jihadists Coulibaly and Said and Cherif Kouachi – who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks – as well as Coulibaly were gunned down by cops.