France beheading attack: Suspect Yassin Salhi kills himself
- Published
A French terror suspect who decapitated his boss and tried to blow up a gas plant in June, has been found dead in prison near Paris.
The authorities said Yassin Salhi, 35, had killed himself.
He was being held in Fleury-Merogis prison, south Paris.
Prosecutors regarded Salhi as a militant Islamist, but the delivery driver maintained that he was motivated by a grudge against his employer.
Salhi had been placed in solitary confinement pending his trial, but was not considered a suicide risk.
On 26 June he drove his van into a building containing flammable liquids at the Air Products factory near the city of Lyon.
There was a blast shortly afterwards and the decapitated body of Salhi's boss, was found nearby.
His head - reportedly bearing Arabic inscriptions - had been hooked on to factory railings, alongside two flags, also with Arabic writing on it.
Salhi had been under surveillance for being a suspected radical Islamist between 2006 and 2008, officials said.