Paris police fight guards at Europe's biggest 'Jihadi' prison

French riot police have been involved in violent clashes with guards outside the biggest prison in Europe – one notorious for producing jihadi terrorists.



Around 350 militant wardens who work in Fleury-Merogis, in the southern suburbs of Paris, were protesting against conditions that have become a breeding ground for radicalism.



They set up barricades and lit fires, before riot police moved in shortly after 10pm on Monday night.



‘The state against the state,’ was chanted, as the two sides began fighting each other and tear gas canisters exploded around them.



Videos posted on social media showed gendarmes wearing full riot gear using shields to push demonstrators back.



The protests were organized by a number of prison officer trade unions who say their jobs are becoming harder every day because of overcrowding and increased violence.



Last year a group of guards foiled at least 10 inmates who were planning a terrorist attack.



The men – who have since been separated and moved to other prisons – wanted to stage a mutiny, escape, and then destroy targets in France.



It was only thanks to undercover surveillance inside Fleury-Merogis that the plot was brought to a halt.



There are some 4,500 inmates in the prison, which was built in the 1960s to accommodate around 3,000.



Current inmates include Salah Abdeslam, the 27-year-old Islamic State operative who survived the November 2015 attacks on Paris, in which 130 people were murdered by explosives and machine gun fire.



Abdeslam is in solitary confinement and awaiting trial for his part in the worst terrorist attack on Paris this century.



Those who have been radicalized in Fleury-Merogis over the years include Amedy Coulibaly, who shot dead a policewoman and four Jewish shoppers in January 2015.



Coulibaly, who was himself killed by police when he was 32, was a bank robber with no particular religious affiliations before serving time in Fleury-Merogis.
It was inside the prison that he came under the influence of other would-be Islamist terrorists.


These included Cherif Kouachi, one of the Charlie Hebdo killers who murdered 12 in the officers of the satirical magazine in January 2015.