France: anti -terrorism seized after mysterious attacks targeting prisons

French anti-terrorism investigators seek to identify the authors of a series of attacks on Tuesday, sometimes accompanied by mysterious inscriptions but without claim, targeting several prisons targeted since Sunday by vehicle fires and even “Kalashnikov” fire in Toulon (south-east). According to the first elements of the investigation, all the hypotheses are envisaged, indicated to AFP. Total, 21 vehicles have been tagged and ordered since Sunday evening, according to a police source.

“I do not know what is hidden behind this slogan”, “and besides I don’t care,” said French Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin from Toulon-La Farlède prison, whose door was riddled with impacts from Kalashnikov. Stressing that “there was no claim”, he said he hoped that the authors of these acts “will be confused and convinced extremely heavily”, slipping in passing asking for his counterpart Bruno Retailleau to “mobilize all means” to protect the prison services. The latter underlined on Tuesday morning that he had asked for a “without delay” strengthening of “the protection of agents and establishments” penitentiary.

« 15 impacts »

Referring to his policy of prison hardening against the most dangerous detainees, Mr. Darmanin considered that there were “obviously acts of intimidation against the agents, therefore against the Republic”. “We will not give in,” he said. Following the facts aimed at different prisons and the National School of Penitentiary Administration (ENAP) between Sunday and Tuesday, the National Anti -terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) announced that it was seized from the investigation.

A decision which is justified by the operating mode evoking a “concerted action whose objective is to seriously disturb public order by intimidation”, according to another source close to the file. Around 0.40 am on Monday to Tuesday, the door of the Toulon-La Farlède penitentiary center was targeted by “several individuals” arrived on a vehicle, according to the Toulon prosecutor. Fifteen impacts were noted after these Kalashnikov shots, according to a source close to the file. On the spot, the gray door through which the prison vans pass, in addition to the ball impacts, the inscription “DDFM” in orange red, noted an AFP journalist.

Hydrocarbon can

Eight vehicles were also burnt down in a car concession next to Nîmes prison (south) on the night of Sunday to Monday, according to the local prosecutor’s office. In the parking lot of the Villepinte prison, near Paris, three vehicles, including two belonging to prison agents who were burned on Monday evening, according to a police source. A five -liter hydrocarbon can have been found.

In the Aix-Luynes prison center (southeast), a door was burned down, according to a source close to the file. During the night from Sunday to Monday, fires also hit the Penitentiary Center in Réau, near Paris, and the ENAP parking lot in Agen (southwest), according to several sources close to the case.

Seven vehicles were “destroyed or degraded due to a fire” in the ENAP car park, according to the local prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor judged on Monday that he was “too early to generate specific tracks”. According to a police source, the penitentiary establishments in Nanterre, near Paris, and Valencia were also affected by vehicle fires, some of which had previously been tagged.