Two prison guards in Borgo (Haute-Corse) were critically injured this morning by a radicalized Islamist detainee, Reuters quoted the Ufap-Unsa Justice employee organization as saying.
Maxime Coustie, a representative of the l'Ufap-Unsa Justice, told the France 3 broadcaster: "For two weeks this prisoner has been closely monitored, and today they were to put him in solitary confinement because of his danger to others."
The medium-security detainee was placed in solitary confinement and while the guards were opening his cell he threw himself on them, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is the greatest").
"One of the two guards was wounded in the chest with a knife, the other hit in the head, these are very serious injuries," Coustie said.
The prosecutor of Bastia, Caroline Tharot, told the AFP news agency that one of the two guards was more seriously affected than the other, adding that the prosecutor's office had opened an investigation into the attack.
According to the agency report, there were at least three assailants.
This attempted assault is just one of several similar incidents, involving redicalized Islamists, which have taken place in different prisons across France. While the mobilization of prison guards demanding more security to carry out their mission was in full swing, seven supervisors were assaulted on January 15 in the late afternoon by a radicalized detainee at the Mont-de-Marsan penitentiary.
The attacks triggered prison worker protests at the Fleury-Merogis Prison in the suburbs of Paris, which lasted for several days, with at least 100 people taking to the streets against violence.