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French PM warns of more attacks after decapitation of man increases tensions

Manuel Valls said it was simply a question of when a new attack took place and warned that some would try to 'exploit' the tensions in France.

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French prime minister Manuel Valls warned on Saturday that France faced more attacks to come after a grisly killing in which a suspected Islamist pinned the severed head of his boss to the gates of a gas factory, reports The Straits Times.

Mr Valls said Friday's attack would create tension in France - home to Western Europe's largest Muslim population - that "will be exploited". "It's difficult for a society to live for years under the threat of attack," he told AFP on a flight back from Bogota, adding: "The question is not... if there will be another attack, but when."

The alleged assailant, identified as 35-year-old married father-of-three Yassin Salhi, also caused an explosion by smashing his vehicle into the Air Products factory near France's second city of Lyon.

The grisly killing came on the same day as two other attacks claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, which left 38 people dead at a beach resort in Tunisia and 27 in a suicide bombing in Kuwait.

The victim, a 54-year-old local businessman, was found with Arabic inscriptions scrawled on him and Islamic flags were also found on the site at the small town of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, some 40km from Lyon.

Read more of this AFP report published by The Straits Times.