France terror attack: who is the prime suspect?

Elite BRI police officers surround the Lyon housing block where suspect Yassine Salhi is believed to have lived (Getty)

The suspect was taken into custody after being arrested by firemen at the scene of the attack on an Air Products factory near Lyon.

Two men rammed a car into the US-owned gas and chemicals company, triggering an explosion. The body of a man was later found decapitated, his severed head covered in Arabic writing.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve later named the alleged terrorist as Yassine Salhi, although the spelling of the name has not been confirmed.

He had previously been under surveillance by the French security services for alleged involvement with Salafist Islamic radicals, but was taken off the watch list after two years.

Mr Cazeneuve said: “The identity of the criminal is not exact but we know that it could be Yassine Salhi.

“This person was part of File S (a watch list of people suspected of having ties with radical extremists) in 2006 for radicalisation which was not renewed in 2008.

“He did not have a (criminal) record.”

According to French media, Salhi was 35 and from Saint-Priest, a suburb of Lyon.

He is reportedly being held at a police station in Bourgoin and is refusing to answer questions.

Police from the special BRI unit were later seen escorting an unidentified woman from a building where Salhi is though to have lived.

‘Wife’ rings radio show

A woman who claimed to be Salhi’s wife later phoned the French radio station Europe 1 and described her husband as a delivery driver.

She said: “He left for work at 7am this morning. He’s in delivery. He delivers boxes, orders, things like that. Yesterday he went to work, he returned, normal, we passed a normal night, and then this morning, as usual, he left for work.

“At around midday, I was waiting for him for this afternoon. Then my sister-in-law said: ‘Turn on the television and the news.’ She was crying. My heart stopped. I don’t understand it at all.”

She added: “On the news they said it was a terrorist act – but that’s not possible. I know him, he’s my husband. We have a normal family life. He leaves for work, then he returns. There’s nothing – you can come to the house and look round however you like. But we live a normal life.

We have three children, we have a normal family life.

Asked if her husband was religious, she said: “Just normal. We do Ramadan. Normal. We have three children, we have a normal family life. There are no worries. I see no interest in why he would do this.

“Can someone please give me some information? I really don’t understand anything. I’m all alone in the house. I was going to take my daughter to school. But I’m afraid to do anything. What’s happening?”

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a man called Yassin Salhi was given a six-month suspended jail sentence for attacking a Jewish train passenger travelling from Paris to Lyon.