Paris attacks: Voice in Isis propaganda is 'probably' French jihadist Fabien Clain

Fabien Clain was strongly linked to a group that gravitated around the entourage of Mohamed Merah

People leave tributes to the victims of the Paris attacks (PA)

A Frenchman has been reportedly been identified as one of the people speaking in Isis propaganda referencing the Paris attacks, with a police source saying it is "probably him".

According to Le Figaro, the voice is believed to be that of Fabien Clain, an active member of the Islamist scene who is currently based in Raqqa.

The 35-year-old has been in Syria since February 2014, where he is believed to be part of a cell that produces and distributes Isis propaganda.

Clain was strongly linked to a group that gravitated around the entourage of Mohamed Merah, the man who gunned down three French soldiers before attacking a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012, where he killed three children and a rabbi.

Known to French intelligence services since 2001, Clain was also linked to the attempted attack on a church in Villejuif, which was aborted on 19 April after attacker Sid Ahmed Ghlam, 24, shot himself in the leg.

Born in 1980, Clain is believed to have come from the French island of Réunion, and is also known as "Omar" by his family. He and his brother, Jean-Michel, who is also known to intelligence services, converted to Islam and ran a group of Salafist militants known as the “Clan Belphegor” from housing estates in Toulouse.

In 2003, the Clain brothers moved to Utrecht in Holland, where they are thought to have distributed Islamic literature. After a short period they left with their wives for Egypt to study in a Koranic school. They joined jihadist groups in 2003 after the Iraq invasion, although they were arrested when they tried to move there in 2009.

Both men were banned from Toulouse and 22 other French departments. Fabien Clain moved back to Normandy after his release from prison, before leaving with his brother for Syria in 2014.

According to De Spiegel, French authorities have found further evidence indicating that the Paris attacks were orchestrated from Syria.