French attack suspect begins to talk as gruesome 'selfie' emerges

Special forces of France's Research and Intervention Brigades (BRI) cover a window with a sheet as they search the apartment of a man suspected of carrying out an attack in Saint-Priest near Lyon on June 26, 2015. AFP photo

French authorities were transferring the man suspected of beheading his boss in an alleged jihadist attack to Paris on June 28, as it emerged he sent a macabre "selfie" of the decapitation.

Anti-terror police will grill the suspect, Yassin Salhi, a 35-year-old father-of-three, as they search for clues and a motive for June 26 attack on a gas warehouse near France's second city of Lyon.
 
After several hours of silence, Salhi has begun to open up to investigators about the assault, which came six months after 17 were killed in Islamist attacks in Paris that began with the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
 
And Canadian authorities are trying to help France solve the case after it emerged Salhi sent a gruesome selfie photo of himself and the severed head to a WhatsApp number in Canada.
 
Investigators have warned however that it could be a relay number and the intended recipient could be anywhere in the world.
 
The probe is naturally focusing on Syria, where hundreds of French people have gone to wage jihad, officials said.
 
Anti-terrorist authorities have identified 473 people who have left France to fight in Iraq or Syria, according to sources close to the probe.
 
On June 26 morning, Salhi rammed his van into the US-owned Air Products factory in what President Francois Hollande said was a "terrorist" attack designed to blow up the whole building.
 
He was overpowered by a firefighter as he was trying to prise open a bottle of acetone in an apparent suicidal bid to destroy the factory.
 
Police then made the grisly discovery of the severed head of Salhi's boss, 54-year-old Herve Cornara, lashed to the gates of the factory near two flags with the Muslim profession of faith written on...

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