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Francois Hollande Responds To French Attack

by Abby Johnston

Just hours after a severed head was found pinned to the gates of a U.S. chemical factory near Lyon, France Friday morning, French President Francois Hollande declared it a "pure terrorist attack." According to CNN, an attacker drove to the Air Products factory in car donning Arabic banners, setting off an explosion that left one person decapitated. Arabic writing was also found surrounding the body. The incident prompted Hollande to make an early exit from an EU summit in Brussels, heading back to comfort a country still reeling from the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year.

French officials announced that Hollande, who learned about the attacks in the middle of a meeting, would be leaving the summit shortly, but was already in constant contact with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who rushed to the scene. Before returning to France, Hollande confirmed several details about the attack, which was apparently intended to have a much more gruesome end:

We have no doubt the attack was intended to blow up the building. The attack bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack. A decapitated body was found with inscriptions written on it. There was one dead and two injured. The interior minister went to the scene immediately. The suspect who carried out this attack was arrested and identified.

Soon after, Hollande took to Twitter to comfort his country: "Our response is action, prevention, dissuasion, and the necessity to hold on to our values and to never give in to fear."

The tragedy comes on the same day as two other deadly attacks: a shooting at a beach resort in Tunisia and a blast at a mosque in Kuwait — the latter of which was claimed by ISIS. Details about all three incidents are still emerging.