Backgrounder: Recent major terror attacks in France

The past two decades have seen a spate of violent terrorist attacks in France targeting sensitive installations and causing casualties and serious property losses.

June 26, 2015: An attack at a gas factory in southeast France left one person dead and two others wounded. A flag of the Islamic State (IS) was left on the spot, and French President Francois Hollande has termed the incident as a "terrorist" attack.

January 7, 2015: Twelve people were killed and 11 others were injured when masked gunmen stormed the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility.

At about the same time, Amedy Coulibaly, who claimed to be linked to the Islamic State, shot dead a policewoman and killed four Jewish shoppers in two separate attacks in Paris.

December 20, 2014: A 20-year-old man stormed into a police station in Joue-les-Tours, shouting "Allahu Akbar", and injuring three police officers with a knife. He was shot dead at the scene.

October 6, 2012: Police shot dead a 33-year-old man in Strasbourg and took seven suspects into custody during an anti-terrorism operation. They were accused of an attack on a Jewish grocery store.

March 15, 2012: Two soldiers were shot dead by a man riding a scooter outside their barracks in a town north of Toulouse. A third soldier was injured.

Four days later a man driving a scooter shot dead seven people, including three children, a teacher and his two sons, at a Jewish school in Toulouse.

The 32-year-old gunman was killed when he tried to shoot his way out of his apartment following a 32-hour police siege in Toulouse. He had identified himself as an al-Qaeda supporter before his death.

July 25, 1995: Eight people were killed and more than 150 others were injured when a bomb went off in Paris' Saint-Michel train station, part of a series of attacks for which the Algerian Armed Islamic Group claimed responsibility. Endi