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An al-Qaeda terrorist has stabbed three prison guards in France in a bid to avoid being extradited to the US to face charges he helped mastermind 9/11.

Christian Ganczarski, 51, is currently serving 18 years for his part in a synagogue attack that killed 21 people.

He is also said to have been an advisor of Osama bin Laden, and allegedly helped him plan the September 11th atrocities in which almost 3,000 died.

The German national, who converted to radical Islam in the 1980s, managed to smuggle a pair of scissors into his cell in the notoriously violent Vendin-le-Vieil prison, 55 miles south of Calais.

"The prisoner launched himself at three guards, wounding one very seriously with a pair of scissors," said an investigating source.

"The victim was rushed to hospital, while the other guards were treated inside the prison," the source added.

"None of the injuries are life threatening."

Ganczarski had been in solitary confinement because of his bad behaviour, and was being moved back into a wing with other prisoners when the attack happened on Thursday.

Jean-Francois Forget, a guards trade union spokesman, said: "The prison head had told time him that he was due to be extradited to the United States where he is suspected of being one of the organisers of the September 11th attacks."

Mr Forget added: "He was recorded in a telephone call saying he would do something to stay in France.

"What happened in Vendin-le-Vieil is absolutely unacceptable."

(Image: Getty)

"He was placed in solitary confinement, with reinforced security measures after wiretaps suggested he was about to strike.

"Because he kept to himself, the isolation measures were relaxed on Monday by the head of the prison."

Armed guards wearing body armour and helmets soon turned up at the scene to restore order, and Ganczarski was put back in a cell alone.

It was reported by other local sources that Ganczarski had been aiming for the carotid artery around his victims’ necks.

A blade in this area frequently proves fatal, meaning investigators are working on the theory that Ganzarski was trying to murder prison staff.

Ganczarski becomes eligible for extradition to America in February, where security organisations want to interview him, with a view to criminal crime.

A counter-terrorism investigation into the latest attack is now likely to delay Ganczarski’s extradition.

Ganczarski was arrested in France in 2003, and then convicted for his part in a terrorist atrocity on the Tunisian island of Djerba the year before.

It saw a bomber drive a tanker filling with cooking gas into a Jewish place of worship that had been on the site for almost 2000 years, destroying it and killing the 21 victims, while wounding scores of others.