Terrorist Who Cut Off Boss Head Found Dead In Prison

Yassin Salhi hanged himself, according to authorities at Fleury-Merogis prison in the southern suburbs of Paris.

The French terror suspect who cut off his boss's head and planted it on a fence at an industrial gas factory has been found dead in his jail cell.

The 35-year-old driver and deliveryman carried out the attack on his employer, Herve Cornara, in Isere, south-eastern France in June.

After killing him and displaying his severed head between two Islamic flags, he tried to blow up the US-owned Air Products factory near Lyon.

The attempt failed and Salhi, who was married with three children and lived in Lyon, was arrested at the scene by a firefighter.

Salhi had been placed in solitary confinement but the authorities say he was not considered a suicide risk.

He denied there was a religious motive for the killing, although he had been charged with terrorist offences.

Born in the eastern French town of Pontarlier to North African parents, Salhi caught the attention of intelligence officers in 2005 but was apparently not deemed to be a threat.

He popped up on the intelligence radar again in 2013 because of his association with people suspected of links to radical Islam.

At the time he wore a beard and a traditional North African robe called a djellaba.