France beheading attack: Suspect Yassin Salhi kills himself Published duration 23 December 2015

image copyright Getty Images image caption Yassin Salhi insisted the attack was not motivated by Islamist views

A French terror suspect who decapitated his boss and tried to blow up a gas plant in June, has been found dead in prison near Paris.

The authorities said Yassin Salhi, 35, had killed himself.

He was being held in Fleury-Merogis prison, south Paris.

Prosecutors regarded Salhi as a militant Islamist, but the delivery driver maintained that he was motivated by a grudge against his employer.

Salhi had been placed in solitary confinement pending his trial, but was not considered a suicide risk.

On 26 June he drove his van into a building containing flammable liquids at the Air Products factory near the city of Lyon.

There was a blast shortly afterwards and the decapitated body of Salhi's boss, was found nearby.

His head - reportedly bearing Arabic inscriptions - had been hooked on to factory railings, alongside two flags, also with Arabic writing on it.

Salhi had been under surveillance for being a suspected radical Islamist between 2006 and 2008, officials said.

image copyright EPA image caption The attack happened at a factory of Air Products, a US-based firm