LIVE Huge manhunt in France after two prison officers killed in van attack

[sl8]

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-69009025

LIVE Huge manhunt in France after two prison officers killed in van attack

Summary

- At least two French prison officers have been killed in an ambush on a prison van near Rouen in Normandy, France

- The prisoner was being taken from court to a prison and escaped after the attack

- French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti says two officers died, with three seriously injured

- The officers were shot with "heavy weapons" by the prisoner's accomplices, the minister says

[...]

[...]

============

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/14/french-prison-officers-reported-killed-as-inmate-escapes-van

Three French prison officers reported killed as inmate escapes van

Two others wounded in attack on vehicle transporting prisoner in Rouen area, police source says

Agence France-Presse
Tue 14 May 2024 08.17 EDT

Three French prison officers have been killed and two others wounded in an attack on a prison van transporting an inmate who escaped, a police source told Agence France-Presse.

The ramming attack took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France, another source close to the case added.

The inmate was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy.

A police source said that the attack was carried out by a team of several individuals who arrived in two vehicles and themselves later fled.

[...]

[sl8]

1. Update; More on escaped inmate

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/two-french-prison-guards-killed-inmate-escapes-ambush-manhunt-launched-2024-05-14/

Gunmen ambush French prison van to free drug dealer, kill two guards

By Dominique Vidalon and Gabriel Stargardter
May 14, 2024 11:20 AM EDT Updated 15 min ago

PARIS, May 14 (Reuters) - Gunmen wearing balaclavas ambushed a prison van in northern France on Tuesday to free a drug dealer known as "The Fly", killing two prison guards, severely wounding three and triggering a major police manhunt.

The brazen, planned attack underlines the growing threat of drug crime across Europe, the world's No.1 cocaine market. It took place around 0900 GMT at a toll booth in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France.

The fugitive inmate, named Mohamed Amra, is a 30-year-old drug dealer from northern France, according to the Paris prosecutor's office and police sources. He had been convicted of burglary by a court in Evreux on May 10 and was being held at the Val de Reuil prison.

Amra had also been indicted by prosecutors in Marseille for a kidnapping that led to a death, the Paris prosecutor's office said. A police source in Marseille said Amra was a drug dealer with ties to the city's powerful "Blacks" gang.

[...]