Protests at French prisons as search continues for gunmen who killed officers

Prison officers complain of overcrowding and violence after two guards killed and inmate freed from van

Hundreds of prison officers across France have held protests after gunmen shot dead two prison officers in an ambush at a Normandy motorway toll and freed a convict linked to gangland drug killings.

On Wednesday morning, groups of prison officers blocked prison entrances across France, while some burned pallets and tyres.

Prison officers will hold a minute’s silence at 11am in memory of the killed officers, and in support of the three others who were seriously injured in the raid on a prison convoy transporting an inmate between a courthouse in Rouen and a prison at Evreux on Tuesday.

At one prison near Marseille, more than 100 prison officers had gathered beneath a banner saying: “We’re not paid to die.”