Police arrested a 40-year-old man in Toulon, France, after a severed head was thrown out of a window.
The severed head was found in the street in a cardboard box on Monday afternoon in the centre of Toulon and was reportedly thrown from a third-floor window of a nearby building.
The French police elite tactical unit Search, Assistance, Intervention, Deterrence (RAID) was deployed and arrested a man at around 3 pm after he was seen at the window with blood-covered hands, BFMTV reports.
According to the broadcaster, police had previously visited the address where the suspect had been arrested between Sunday night and the early hours of Monday while responding to reports of a fight.
Two homeless people occupy the residence, and it is believed that the 56-year-old beheading victim was one of the homeless men who was involved in the fight hours earlier.
A source close to the investigation told local newspaper Var-Matin that the man in custody was arrested without any resistance and appeared to be in a “haggard and disorientated state”. The source also claimed the 40-year-old suspect kept referring to “Satan” while in custody. The man was then hospitalised following a psychological assessment.
The suspect is not known to police. Investigators have confirmed that he was not on any terror watchlist and no terrorist motive is currently being considered.
The murder comes just months after French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in the street by a Chechen refugee for showing cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed to his class during a lesson on free speech.
France has seen a surge of homicides and attempted homicides in recent years, with a 2019 report claiming that the number of cases had gone up by 79 per cent in the past ten years.
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