(Radio France) French prison guards blocked the entrances of at least 18 prisons on Wednesday in a show of solidarity for two colleagues who were stabbed by an inmate at a high-security facility at Conde-sur-Sarthre in Normandy. But the movement is larger, with prison guards warning they do not have enough resources to address the growing numbers of radicalised inmates.
On Tuesday two guards were seriously wounded when a prisoner, Michael Chiolo, stabbed them with a ceramic knife likely smuggled into the prison by his partner, who was visiting.
French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet called it a terrorist attack. Chiolo is a convert to Islam, and is thought to have become radicalised while in prison.
French prisons are seen as breeding grounds for spreading of radical Islamist ideas.
