France beheading attack: Suspect Yassin Salhi kills himself

Yassin Salhi insisted the attack was not motivated by Islamist views

The authorities said Yassin Salhi, 35, had killed himself.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.

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.

Image copyrightEPA

Image captionThe attack happened at a factory of Air Products, a US-based firm