Police raids across France after wave of prison attacks

Twenty-five people have been arrested in early morning raids across France in response to a wave of coordinated attacks on prisons and the homes of prison officers in April.

Raids are taking place across the country on Monday including in the capital Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux in the south, and the city of Lyon.

French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has suggested the attacks are the work of gangs who are retaliating against a new government crackdown on drug trafficking.

The most serious incidents took place over the course of five nights earlier this month, with vehicles being set alight and two prisons being targeted by gunfire in what Darmanin described as “terrorist attacks”.

Prisons in Toulon, Aix-En-Provence, Marseille, Valence and Nîmes in southern France, and in Villepinte and Nanterre, near Paris were among those targeted.

In one of the most serious attacks, gunmen opened fired on Toulon’s La Farlede prison gate with a Kalashnikov on 15 April.

Since 13 April, the French government said there had been at least 65 recorded attacks against prisons or prison staff, Le Figaro reported.

One group which says is defending the rights of prisoners has claimed responsibility for attacks over the past two weeks in a series of posts on the Telegram social network, French media is reporting.

President Emmanuel Macron has promised the attackers will be “found, tried and punished.”

French anti-terror prosecutors, leading the case, have so far announced 25 arrests on Monday.

Some of them took place inside prisons, with suspected leaders of the operations who are believed to have directed the attacks taken aside for questioning, French broadcaster BFMTV reported.

Responding to the arrests, Darmanin said: We remain committed to the law and to the Republic in our relentless fight against drug trafficking.”

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, meanwhile, praised the “great professionalism” of the investigators which “made it possible to achieve results in a very short time”.

Both ministers have promised tougher action against drug-related crime.

France’s upper and lower houses of parliament are preparing to vote on a bill this week which would create a special prosecutor’s office, with new powers for investigators.