Radicalised prisoner takes guard HOSTAGE threatening to slash throat in armed siege
A RADICALISED prisoner held a guard hostage in his prison cell and threatened to stab his throat an armed siege.
Jean-Jacques Urvoas said the radicalised prisoner was already flagged as a potential risk
The 21-year-old prisoner, who is thought to have been radicalised behind bars, flipped when the guard arrived at his cell to drop off a bag of clothes.
The prisoner threatened to slash the guard’s throat with a knife if he didn’t enter the cell, before holding him hostage.
He ordered police and negotiators to move him to another prison during a tense four hour stand-off.
The prisoner is suspected to have carried out an armed attack in September, and was being held in pre-trial detention in Dijon, a town in northern France.
He had already been flagged as a potential risk after fearing he had become radicalised behind bars, according to France’s justice minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas.
Police from a hostage team negotiated with the suspected jihadist and were able to get him to surrender at around 9.50pm on Friday by giving in to his demands and by “promising to move him to another prison,” Thierry Cordelette, a spokesman for the prison officers’ union said.
A radicalised prisoner held a guard hostage in his prison cell and threatened to stab his throat
He is currently receiving both medical and psychological support
But whether he will be moved to another detention centre as promised remains unknown.
According to Mr Cordelette the prison guard, who is said to be in his thirties, is an “experienced man with high self-control”.
He said: “He managed to remain calm throughout but remains in a deep state of shock. He is currently receiving both medical and psychological support.”
The prisoner is suspected to have carried out an armed attack in September
This is not the first time that a prison guard is attacked by a radicalised prisoner while on duty.
In September, two guards were attacked by a radical Islamist: one was stabbed in the neck and the other in the arm.
Welcome to the Islamic State of FRANCE
In a press release issued shortly after the incident, Mr Urvoas pledged to tighten security in French jails and to isolate radicalised prisoners in order to ensure the safety of prison guards.