Little is known about the man arrested in a terror attack Friday on a factory near the French city of Lyon, but early indications are that he was motivated by Islamist extremism.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the suspect’s identity “is being clarified at the moment but we already know that it could be a question of one Yassin Salhi.” The spelling of that name has not yet been confirmed.
“This is somebody who was in touch with (Muslim fundamentalists) Salafists,” Cazeneuve said of the suspect. “… He has been under surveillance, but he was not known as being involved in any terrorist act.”
An intelligence report was opened on the man in 2006 because of suspected radicalization, he said, but it was not renewed in 2008.
The man did not have a police record, he said.
“He has been under surveillance, but he was not known as being involved in any terrorist act,” Cazeneuve said. French authorities are “investigating any other people that could be accomplices,” he added.
“The dangerous elements were neutralized immediately after the crime was committed,” he said.
Cazenueve said the suspect was from Saint-Priest, a suburb of Lyon, which is a major French industrial center.
CNN’s French affiliate BFMTV said its information indicated the suspect was 35 years old and that he did not have identification papers on him when he was detained.
The suspect was arrested at the scene of the attack on a U.S.-owned gas factory in the Isere area, southeast of Lyon.