France identifies one gas plant attacker, says other killed by firefighter

France identifies the arrested attacker in Lyon-area terrorist attack

(Image credit: PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images)

published 26 June 2015

In a news conference Friday, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that police have arrested one suspect in the mid-morning attack on a gas plant outside of Lyon, and tentatively identified the suspect as Yassine (or Yacine) Sali. The other suspect, he added, was killed by a firefighter during the attack. France had monitored Salim from 2006 to 2008, suspecting him of ties to a radical Salafist group, Cazeneuve said, but he had since been "under the radar" of the security services.

Air Products, the U.S. company that owns the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier plant, said that all of its employees have been accounted for. "Our priority at this stage is to take care of our employees, who have been evacuated from the site and all accounted for," the company said in a statement. "Emergency services are on site and have contained the situation. The site is secure."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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