Key Facts

• The police in France carried out early morning raids across different cities, like Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Lyon, leading to 25 arrests.
• These arrests were made in response to a series of attacks on prisons and homes of prison staff in April.
• The Justice Minister of France, Gérald Darmanin, thinks these attacks were done by gangs because of new rules about drug selling.
• In one of the most serious attacks, someone shot Toulon's La Farlede prison gate with a big gun called a Kalashnikov on April 15th.
• Prisons in different parts of France, including Toulon, Aix-En-Provence, Marseille, Valence, Nîmes, Villepinte, and Nanterre, were targeted.
• Since April 13th, the French government has noted at least 65 attacks against prisons or staff working there.
• A group claiming to defend prisoner rights said they were responsible for the attacks over the past two weeks.
• President Emmanuel Macron said that the people behind the attacks will be found, taken to court, and punished.
• Some of the people arrested were inside prisons, seen as the ones who planned the attacks and were taken for questioning.