French President François Hollande described the attack on a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon in the south-east of the country as a terrorist attack and said in an address from the Elysée later on Friday that France’s “Vigipirate” anti-terrorism alert system will be raised to its highest level for the next three days in the Rhône-Alpes region.

France 24.com provides here a detailed account of the strike and the aftermath, which includes the arrest of the terror suspect:

“A decapitated head, along with a flag in Arabic, has been found following an attack on a factory in southeast France Friday in which an assailant also rammed a car into the premises, triggering an explosion.

“Here are the main developments so far:

A person rammed a car into the premises of a factory owned by US company Air Products in the town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, triggering an explosion.

Police have said a decapitated head was found at the site, along with a flag bearing Arabic writing, although there was uncertainty about how the man was decapitated and where. The head was also covered in Arabic writing, according to authorities and media reports.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said one suspect, named as Yassin Sahli, had been arrested, and police were holding other suspected accomplices.

The decapitated man was the attacker’s boss at the delivery company where he worked, the Paris prosecutor François Molins said. Authorities were able to identify the attacker as he was known to the employers at the factory, where he regularly made deliveries.

There is no evidence so far to suggest that Sahli had an accomplice, said Molins.

Sahli had been under surveillance from 2006 to 2008 on suspicion of having become radicalised, but had no criminal record, said Cazeneuve.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has ordered tightened security measures on all “sensitive sites” in the region.

French President François Hollande, speaking in Brussels, described it as a “terrorist attack”.

Hollande said in an address from the Elysée later on Friday that France’s “Vigipirate” anti-terrorism alert system will be raised to its highest level for the next three days in the Rhône-Alpes region.