Updated

France's top security official says the government has expelled 12 radical imams and preachers since the beginning of the year and a total of 40 since 2012.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told Europe 1 radio that France will not tolerate "preachers of hatred."

He spoke three days after Yassin Salhi was accused of beheading his boss and then trying to cause an explosion at a U.S.-owned gas factory. He had been flagged in 2006 for ties to radical Muslims, but surveillance was lifted in 2008.

The Air Products plant reopened on Monday. Executives there say Salhi made regular deliveries for the plant and had an entry badge. Authorities are searching for possible international links after he sent a photo of the victim to a contact in Syria.