IN PICS | Cars set on fire at French prison in second wave of attacks

French jails were hit by a second wave of attacks overnight, including three cars set alight at Tarascon prison in southern France, the justice minister and a prison workers' union said on Wednesday, as authorities sought to identify those responsible.

“Cars were set on fire very early this morning,” justice minister Gerald Darmanin told CNews TV and Europe 1 radio, speaking of the attack in Tarascon.

The hall of a building in Meaux, east of Paris, where a prison guard works, was also set on fire overnight, as was the car of a prison guard who works in Aix-Luynes, in southern France, the FO Justice union said on X. In Tarascon, three cars burnt in the prison's parking lot, it said.

Earlier in the week, at least six prisons guarding some of the nation's most hardened crime kingpins came under gun and arson attack.

Darmanin, who said on Tuesday that the attacks were acts of terrorism, on Wednesday said he could exclude no scenario, but that people linked to drug trafficking might be trying to frighten authorities and those who work in prisons.

“There are clearly people who try to destabilise the state by intimidating it,” he said.  “We won't back down. If the state backs down, then there is nothing left, the French wouldn't be protected any more.”

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) has taken charge of the probe into the attacks, which also targeted the National School of Prison Administration. The PNAT said officers from France's domestic intelligence agency DGSI would assist in the investigation.

A security source said there is no evidence yet of foreign interference.

Years of record South American cocaine imports to Europe have transformed local drug markets, sparking a wave of violence. Despite record cocaine seizures in France, gangs are reaping windfalls as they expand from traditional power bases in cities such as Marseille into smaller towns unused to drug violence.

Graffiti letters “DDPF” — apparently an acronym for “French prisoners' rights” — were tagged on many of the attack sites, which some police sources said could be the work of unknown left-wing militant groups.

But Darmanin said the attacks, which included shooting at prison doors with AK-47 automatic rifles, sounded more like organised crime.

“We are taking very firm measures that are leading drug traffickers to react,” he said. “Some countries have given in to narcobanditism ... we're not at this stage, because we are taking very firm measures, but we're not that far.”

Reuters