Terror attack hits gas factory in France

At least one death was confirmed Friday in an attack being investigated as terrorism at a U.S.-owned gas factory in southeast France, according to multiple news reports.

{mosads}Police told French news agency Agence-France Presse that a decapitated head covered in Arabic writing had been pinned to the gates of the Air Products & Chemicals Inc. gas plant, and CNN reported that at least one suspect was in custody.

Le Monde cited sources saying two people caused an explosion by ramming a vehicle into the factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near Lyon at around 10 a.m. local time. At least two are reported injured, and the severed head was found nearby.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve is allegedly on his way to the site, and President François Hollande is abandoning a European Union summit in Brussels over the attack.

“The intent was without a doubt to cause an explosion,” Hollande said of the incident from Brussels.

“It was a terrorist attack,” he added.

Separately, gunmen have reportedly killed 27 people in attacks on two hotels frequented by tourists in Sousse, Tunisia. 

And in a third attack, a Shia mosque in Kuwait City, Kuwait, was hit in a suicide bomb attack that left at least four people dead, according to a report by the BBC.

President Obama has been briefed on attacks in France, Kuwait and Tunisia, according to an administration official. 

It said the agency is pursuing possible charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal association with a view to committing terrorist attacks.

A suspect apprehended by police is reportedly not cooperating. It is unclear if a second suspect is still at large.

“It is definitely a terrorist attack,” Joelle Huillier, a Socialist member of parliament for the Isere region, told BFM TV, according to Bloomberg. “I am terrified. No one is safe.”

CBS said police also found additional flags or banners featuring Arabic writing at the scene of the crime.

“The site is secure,” the Allentown, Pa.-based company said in a statement, according to NBC. “Our crisis and emergency response teams have been activated and are working closely with all relevant authorities.”

NBC reported that the victim killed in the attack was not an employee of Air Products, which provides industrial gasses to businesses and employees more than 20,000 workers in 50 countries.

France has remained on high alert for potential extremist violence since January’s attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Two radical Islamists shot and killed 11 of the publication’s staff over cartoons they had printed depicting Muhammad, Islam’s holiest prophet.

— Updated at 9:28 a.m.