Summary
Gunmen attacked a prison van in Normandy, killing at least two prison officers and freeing the high-security inmate they were transporting.
A huge manhunt is now underway.
A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and fled.
“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime,” the president, Emmanuel Macron, wrote on X. “We will be uncompromising.”
The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said “all means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilised.”
The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, said the attack had targeted the French republic and the justice system.
The Paris prosecutor named the fugitive prisoner as Mohamed Amra, born in 1994, saying that last week he had been convicted of aggravated robbery and also charged in a case of abduction leading to death.
French authorities asked the public not to re-share videos of the incident on social media.
Manhunt launched after two French prison guards killed and inmate freed
Elite French police are searching for gunmen who attacked a prison van in Normandy, killing at least two prison officers and freeing the high-security inmate they were transporting.
The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, told parliament that two prison officers were killed and three others were seriously injured in the ambush at a motorway toll. Attal said the attack had targeted the French republic and the justice system. “The whole country is shocked by this attack of unprecedented violence,” he said after parliament held a minute’s silence for the officers.
The attack took place at around 11am in Incarville in the Eure region of Normandy. A high-security inmate was being transported from a courthouse in Rouen to a prison in Evreux.
A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and fled. One was wounded, the police source said. French media reported that the men were dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and heavily armed.
The Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau named the fugitive prisoner as Mohamed Amra, born in 1994, saying that last week he had been convicted of aggravated robbery and also charged in a case of abduction leading to death.
