Protesting French prison guards have pushed back against riot police and shouted down the justice minister amid demonstrations at several prisons over violent inmates and overcrowding.

Dozens of union activists lit a fire and were surrounded by riot police on Tuesday morning at the notoriously violent Fresnes prison, south of Paris.

Protesters shouting the national anthem greeted the justice minister, Nicole Belloubet, as she visited a prison in Vendin-le-Vieil, northern France, to try to calm tensions.

Riot police stand guard outside Fresnes prison as prison guards protest. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

The protests in multiple French prisons were sparked by a knife attack last week at the Vendin-le-Vieil jail. Authorities say inmate Christian Ganczarski, linked to a 2002 synagogue attack in Tunisia, was given preliminary charges of attempted murder.

In a separate incident on Monday, seven guards were injured by an inmate at a prison in Mont-de-Marsan, south-west France.