'Radicalised' inmate slashes guards in French prison attack

A prison inmate in northwestern France seriously wounded two guards on Tuesday in a knife attack that officials said was being treated as a terror incident.

"There is no doubt as to the terrorist nature of this attack," Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told reporters.

The inmate "is still holed up" in the prison facility where his partner was visiting him at the time, she added early Tuesday afternoon.

Regional and elite police units have been dispatched to the high-security prison in Conde-sur-Sarthe in Normandy, officials said.

The 27-year-old inmate, Michael Chiolo, is thought to have become a "radicalised" Islamist while in prison and shouted "Allahu Akhbar" (God is Greatest) during his rampage in the family-visiting area of the facility, prison staff representative Alassanne Sall told AFP.

France has suffered a series of attacks from Islamist extremists since 2015 and is on high alert amid concerns about the return of Islamic State group jihadists from Syria.

The latest violence comes as prison staff nationwide, who have been demanding better working conditions, have repeatedly staged protests on Tuesdays.

In January 2018, prison staff held three weeks of protests after a guard was attacked by a jihadist inmate at a high-security jail in northern France.

Experts and trade unions have consistently raised the alarm about the spread of extremism in French prisons, leading the government to build special facilities to house dangerous individuals who are sometimes held in solitary confinement.