Cars set on fire at French prison in second wave of attacks

French jails were hit by a second wave of attacks overnight, including three cars set alight at Tarascon prison in southern France, the Justice Minister and a prison workers' union said on Wednesday, as authorities sought to identify those responsible.

"Cars were set on fire very early this morning," Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told CNews TV and Europe 1 radio, speaking of the attack in Tarascon.

The hall of a building in Meaux, east of Paris, where a prison guard works, was also set on fire overnight, as was the car of a prison guard who works in Aix-Luynes, in southern France, the FO Justice union said on X. In Tarascon, three cars burned in the prison's parking lot, it said.

Earlier in the week, at least six prisons guarding some of the nation's most hardened crime kingpins came under gun and arson attack.

Darmanin, who said on Tuesday that the attacks were acts of terrorism, on Wednesday said he could exclude no scenario.

"There are clearly people who try to destabilise the state by intimidating it," he told CNews and Europe 1.

"We won't back down," he said. "If the state backs down, then there is nothing left, the French wouldn't be protected anymore."

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) has taken charge of the probe into the attacks, which also targeted the National School of Prison Administration. The PNAT said officers from France's domestic intelligence agency DGSI would assist in the investigation.

A security source said there is no evidence as yet of foreign interference.

Years of record South American cocaine imports to Europe have transformed local drug markets, sparking a wave of violence. Despite record cocaine seizures in France, gangs are reaping windfalls as they expand from traditional power bases in cities such as Marseille into smaller towns unused to drug violence.

Graffiti letters "DDPF" - apparently an acronym for "French prisoners' rights" - were tagged on many of the attack sites, which some police sources said could be the work of unknown left-wing militant groups.

But Darmanin said attacks, which included shooting at prison doors with AK-47 automatic rifles, sounded more like organised crime.