France opens terror probe after decapitation, attack on factory

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NBC News – One person was decapitated and two others wounded in an apparent terror attack on a U.S.-owned factory in France, President Francois Hollande said Friday.

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A car crashed through the gates of the Air Products plant in Saint-Quentin Fallavier. southeastern France, shortly after 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET). It was followed by an explosion.

Hollande said a suspect had been arrested and there was "no doubt" that the attacker — possibly acting with an accomplice — intended to blow up the entire plant.

The president — who told reporters that the decapitated body was found with "inscriptions" on it — said the attack bore the hallmarks of terrorism, adding that security has been stepped up at sensitive sites in France.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters at the scene that the suspect was known to authorities and had previously been investigated for radicalization but surveillance ended in 2008.

An interior ministry official earlier told NBC News that an explosion occurred after a car drove onto the scene.

The severed head was found hanging on a fence along a nearby road, according to local newspaper La Dauphine Libere, which said that an Islamist flag also was found nearby.

Air Products said the situation at the site had been "contained" and that all its employees had been evacuated from the site and accounted for.

"The site is secure," the Allentown, Pennsylvania-based company said in a statement. "Our crisis and emergency response teams have been activated and are working closely with all relevant authorities."

The beheaded person was not a worker at the factory, Le Monde reported, citing prosecutors.

France has been on high alert following the deadly January attacks on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.

Hollande, who announced he was returning early from a European summit in Brussels, spoke of "the necessity to protect our values and never give in to fear and not to create any unnecessary division and suspicions [which] would be intolerable and unacceptable."

Air Products supplies industrial gases to businesses and employs more than 20,000 people in 50 countries, according to its website.

— NBC News' Jake Cigainero contributed to this report