French prisons hit by mystery arson and gunfire attacks

A wave of coordinated attacks have hit prisons across France, with unknown assailants torching cars outside several jails, leaving mysterious inscriptions and hitting one facility with automatic gunfire.

In recent months Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau have vowed to intensify the fight against narcotics and drug-related crime.

Overnight Sunday to Monday, a prison warden's car set on fire in Seine-et-Marne outside Paris and fire was set to seven vehicles in the car park of a prison staff training centre in Agen in southwest France, a prosecutor's office and police source said.

But most of the incidents -- several car torchings and an automatic gunfire attack on a prison near the southern city of Toulon -- were recorded overnight Monday to Tuesday.

The inscription "DDPF" -- standing for "French prisoners' rights" -- was found at nearly all sites, except for the prison near Toulon where assailants left the mysterious acronym "DDFM".

The national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office said it was taking charge of the investigation.

Darmanin on Tuesday travelled to the prison near Toulon that was targeted by gunfire.

French authorities "will not give in," he told the press outside the jail, adding no one had yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"Attempts are being made to intimidate penal institutions, ranging from the burning of vehicles to automatic gunfire," he wrote on X earlier.

France is facing "drug trafficking, and is taking measures that will seriously disrupt criminal networks," he added, promising a "firm" government response.

-  'Protection of prison officers' -

Darmanin, who is a former interior minister, is presiding over what he calls a "prison revolution" that envisages putting 200 of France's 700 most dangerous drug traffickers in two top-security prisons.

The plan follows the escape from custody last year of suspected drugs baron Mohamed Amra that killed two prison guards. He has since been re-arrested in Romania and extradited back to France.

All lines of inquiry are being pursued over this week's attacks, but investigators are not ruling out that anarchists could be behind them, one source close to the case said.

But Darmanin said the methods seemed reminiscent of those used in the drugs world.

"It looks awfully like what I knew when I was interior minister: people paid a couple of hundred or thousand euros on small contracts to intimidate," he said.

A source close to the matter told AFP it looked like a coordinated attack "clearly linked to the anti-drug gang strategy" pursued by Darmanin.

Retailleau called for a "prompt" reinforcement of "the protection of prison officers and establishments".

- 'Full-on attack' -

Early Monday night, several individuals armed with automatic rifles targeted the gate of the prison near Toulon, according to the authorities.

The prison's grey gates were peppered with bullet holes and spray-painted with a mysterious inscription reading "DDFM", an AFP journalist reported.

In the southern port city of Marseille, ten prison vehicles were tagged with the inscription DDPF overnight Monday to Tuesday, the head of the Bouches-du-Rhone department, Martine Vassal, said on X.

In the car park of the Villepinte prison north of Paris, three vehicles -- including two belonging to prison staff -- were set on fire, a police source said. A fuel canister was found on site, and CCTV footage showed two individuals torching cars.

Cars were also torched in Aix and Valence in the south of the country, a police source said.

"These criminal acts are a full-on attack on our institution, on the republic and the staff who serve the republic every day," the FO Justice union said, calling for a "strong, clear response" from the government.

Wilfried Fonck, national secretary for the UFAP UNSA Justice union, told AFP the prison system did not have enough staff to secure prison perimeters "24/7".

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