French National Front Leader Le Pen Calls for 'Firm' Anti-Islamism Measures

Marches, slogans and declarations must "give way to action" to stop Islamic fundamentalism, the leader of France's right-wing National Front party said Friday in the wake of the latest suspected Islamist attack in the country.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – French authorities launched a terrorism investigation into a deadly attack at a gas factory, near France's second-largest city of Lyon, that President Francois Hollande later confirmed was a terrorist attack.

"Nothing has been done for years against Islamic fundamentalism… [I call for] firm and strong measures taken immediately to defeat Islamism," Le Pen, the leader of the third-largest political party in France, said in a statement, cited by BFMTV.

A 30-year-old suspect, already on the authorities' radar, has been detained on the premises of the Seveso chemical manufacturing plant in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier commune of the Isere department in southeastern France.

Investigators found a decapitated body and a severed head nearby, with an Islamist flag near the former and Arabic inscriptions near the latter.

France was targeted by extremists earlier this year when 12 people were killed in the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. The country has been on high alert ever since.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced an extraordinary Defense Council meeting at 13:00 GMT. Hollande canceled his trip to Brussels and is expected to take part in the session.