Heavy weapon fire, burned vehicles, tags … Several prisons targeted in France in three days, what we know

After facts intervened between Sunday and Tuesday targeting different prisons and the National School of Penitentiary Administration (ENAP), “the National Anti-terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) seizes the investigation,” he said in a statement. This is entrusted to the anti-terrorist sub-directorate of the judicial police, local services and the Directorate General of Internal Security.

“Intimidation attempts”

According to the first elements of the investigation, the anarchist track seems to take precedence in the vast majority of the facts, a source close to the file underlined to AFP. Denouncing “attempts at intimidation”, the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin is expected in the afternoon at the Toulon penitentiary center, targeted by fire, to support agents on the spot.

“The Republic is confronted with drug trafficking and takes measures that will deeply disturb the criminal networks,” said the Keeper of the Seals on X. “It is challenged and will be firm and courageous”. All hypotheses are envisaged, tempered a source close to the file in the morning.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has requested a “without delay” strengthening of “the protection of” penitentiary “agents and establishments. According to the Toulon prosecutor, Samuel Finielz, the door of the Toulon-La Farlède penitentiary center was targeted by” heavy weapon “fire made by” several individuals “arrived aboard a dozen customs. An investigation into “attempted homicide on a person who is the depositary of the public authority” was entrusted to the gendarmerie, according to the magistrate.

The Secretary General of UFAP-UNSA for the Southeast Southeast region said that seven ball impacts had been found on the armored window at the entrance to the establishment and that another had crossed a contiguous metal door. In addition, during the night of Monday to Monday to Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), “10 penitentiary vehicles were tagged from registration + DDPF + (rights of French prisoners),” said the president of the Bouches-du-Rhône department, Martine Vassal (right).

In Toulon, a large orange -red acronym comprising the mysterious letters “DDFM” was written on the gray door by which the prison vranges enter and released, noted an AFP journalist. In the parking lot of the Villepinte prison, in the Paris region, three vehicles, two of which belonging to prison agents, were burned on Monday evening, according to a police source. A five -liter hydrocarbon can have been found on site. The video surveillance images made it possible to see the two authors penetrating into the enclosure via an earth hill, each burning a vehicle, the third being reached by propagation.

“Front attack”

“These criminal acts are a frontal attack against our institution, against the Republic, and against the agents who serve it on a daily basis,” denounced the FO Justice union, demanding “a strong, immediate and unambiguous response of the state”. “We are waiting for an action coordinated by the Ministers of Justice and the Interior,” said the National Secretary of the UFAP UNSA Justice to AFP, stressing that the prison administration “did not” have the human forces to ensure security around the establishments 24 hours a day “.

During the night from Sunday to Monday, fires also hit the Penitentiary Center in Réau (Paris region) and seven vehicles were burned in the ENAP car park in Agen (southwest), according to the local prosecutor’s office. In Agen, a 43 -year -old suspect was briefly placed in police custody. The prosecutor Olivier Naboulet judged that he was “too early to generate specific avenues, including the motivation of the authors (s)”. According to a police source, other establishments have also been affected by vehicle fires, some of which had previously been tagged