The task facing French security forces in thwarting domestic terror attacks is virtually "impossible", despite the implementation of tougher security measures after January's deadly Paris attacks, a former intelligence officer has said following the beheading of a man in southeastern France today.
Today's attack saw two terrorists launch an attempt on a gas factory in the southeast of the country, between the cities of Grenoble and Lyon, decapitating one man and injuring several more. French President Francois Hollande described the incident as a "terrorist attack".
The prime suspect, believed to be Yassine Sali, was placed under surveillance by French intelligence in 2006 for alleged Islamist links but this was ended in 2008, French interior minister Bernard Cazaneuve today confirmed.
In reaction to the attack, Hollande immediately departed from an EU summit in Brussels and raised the security alert to the highest level in the targeted region, Rhône-Alpes, according to AFP news agency.
In April, the French leader announced that the country would bolster its defence budget by almost €4bn over a four-year period in a reaction to the deadly Paris attacks, in which three Islamists carried out separate terror attacks on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in Paris, leaving 17 people dead.
The heightened security measures implemented by Hollande included permanent emergency military patrols and a force of 7,000 to focus on internal security. "Security, protection, independence, these are principles that are non-negotiable," he told reporters in April.
"We have the duty to support people who may come under threat, but we also defend our own security," he added.
However, Richard Barrett, a former British intelligence officer and senior vice-president at the New York-based risk consultancy The Soufan Group, says that the increased resources deployed by Hollande earlier this year, while positive, will not be able to prevent every attack on French soil.
"It's impossible to stop all attacks, as has been demonstrated today despite the increased resources," he says. "You cannot keep people under 24/7 surveillance, certainly not in the numbers that are out there that may pose a threat."
"On this scale, I think that they are [inevitable] so long as you have things going on in the world that make a very direct appeal to people that can amount such an attack and think that it's worthwhile doing so," he adds.
In figures released by the UK-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) earlier this year, it was revealed that 1,200 French nationals have left the country to join militant groups in Iraq and Syria since 2012.
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