Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack

Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack
Part of Wave of Terror in Europe (Spillover of the Syrian Civil War)
The industrial estate is to the right of this image showing the town.
Location of Isère within France
Location	Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, Isère, France
Coordinates	45°38′34″N 5°07′30″E / 45.6428°N 5.1250°E / 45.6428; 5.1250Coordinates: 45°38′34″N 5°07′30″E / 45.6428°N 5.1250°E / 45.6428; 5.1250
Date	26 June 2015 (2015-06-26) 09:30 CEST (UTC+02:00)
Attack type	Beheading, vehicle ramming, terrorism
Weapons	Knife, Van
Deaths	1
Non-fatal injuries	2
Perpetrators	Yassin Salhi

A terrorist attack took place on 26 June 2015 in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon, France, when a French Muslim of North African descent, Yassin Salhi, decapitated his employer Hervé Cornara and drove his van into gas cylinders at a gas factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near Lyon, France, which caused an explosion that injured two other people. Salhi was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder linked to terrorism. Three other people were questioned by the police but released without charge.

The attack occurred on the same day as several other Islamist terrorist attacks, which have subsequently been named the 2015 Ramadan attacks, though any relationship between the various incidents is disputed. French authorities believe that Salhi has links with the Islamist terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The attack occurred during heightened public fears over Islamist attacks in France, a few months after the Île-de-France attacks in January 2015, including the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Salhi committed suicide in jail in December 2015.

At around 09:30 CEST (07:30 UTC) on 26 June 2015, Yassin Salhi, a delivery driver, gained entrance to the grounds of an Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near the city of Lyon. He was driving a van with his dead 54-year-old boss, Hervé Cornara, inside it. He had tricked Cornara into getting into the van earlier that day, after which Salhi knocked him unconscious and strangled him. He then decapitated Cornara just before reaching the factory. Salhi had made regular visits to the factory, so he was known to employees at the site.

He placed Cornara's severed head on a fence railing and planted two Jihadist flag banners alongside it. The head had a cloth thrown over it with the Shahada written on it: "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet." The headless body and a knife were found on the ground nearby. Salhi attempted to blow up the factory by ramming several gas cylinders, causing an explosion. Two other people were injured in the process. Video surveillance footage showed that the perpetrator also tried to open canisters containing flammable chemicals before being subdued minutes later. He shouted "Allahu Akhbar" as he met and was overpowered by firefighters responding to the scene. The perpetrator had also photographed himself with the slain victim and sent the image to at least one other person via WhatsApp, a French man who later joined ISIL.