Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia

Police investigate the attack in Lyon, France this morning. (Photo: BBC)

Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia

There is no indication that the attacks are related

Developing...

Violence was making global news headlines in two countries on Friday as an earlier attack on a U.S.-owned gas plant in France was later overshadowed by an attack on a hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, where nearly thirty people are reported dead.

The Associated Press reports on the attacks in Tunisia:

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside hotels where tourists were shot in Tunisia, killing at least 27 people, is owned by a Spanish company.

Rajoy said from Brussels that the attacks Friday in Tunisia and in France were both acts of terror but did not provide more details.

Tunisian officials identified the hotel Rajoy referred to as the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in the Port El Kantaoui neighborhood of Sousse. It is owned by Spain's RIU Hotels & Resorts, which has more than 100 hotels in 19 countries.

The company's media office said RIU's board of directors was holding an emergency meeting following the attack.

The media office had no immediate comment on what happened or the nationalities of victims but said the company planned to issue a statement.

And the New York Times says of the attack in France:

An attacker stormed an American-owned industrial chemical plant near Lyon, France, on Friday, decapitated one person and tried unsuccessfully to blow up the factory, in what the French authorities said was a terrorist attack.

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President Francois Hollande said the attacker had been arrested and identified.

These events are still unfolding. The Guardian is providing live updates on Tunisia here and France here.

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