A prisoner who escaped a police van on Tuesday while being taken to jail has drawn the attention of hundreds of police in Normandy. The episode stunned the nation.
As “The Fly,” Mohamed Amra, was being driven back from a court appearance in Rouen, a car struck the prison van at a toll booth. Then two jail officials were killed when armed guys opened fire on the car.
Gerald Darmanin, the French interior minister, declared, “Every method is being used to find these criminals.” On Tuesday, the mobilisation of about 200 gendarmes, and car inspections are being done in strategic areas. As stated by President Emmanuel Macron, “everything is being done to find the perpetrators”.
Just before 11:00 local time (09:00 BST) on Tuesday, the van carrying Amra pased the toll barrier in Incarville, in the northern French province of Eure. “Immediately, a Peugeot vehicle hit it from the front to stop it, men with long guns got out, joined by other armed men who got out of an Audi vehicle, which was likely following the prison vehicle,” Paris state prosecutor Laure Beccuau told reporters. Before fleeing the area and dragging Amra with them, they “fired several times” at the two vehicles, killing and wounding cops.
Two cars that were thought to have been used by the offenders were discovered burnt later on Tuesday, according to the Paris prosecutor. The attack also injured three additional officers. The three wounded officers, who are 48, 52, and 55 years old, are fathers as well, according to Ms. Beccuau, who was quoted in the local media.
Amra was indicted by Marseille prosecutors for a kidnapping that resulted in a murder, and on May 10th, was found guilty of burglary. Amra attempted to break out of his prison cell earlier this week by attempting to saw through the bars, according to certain stories in the French media.
The state prosecutor for the capital, Ms. Beccuau, stated at a press conference that Amra had been found guilty 13 times, the first time being in October 2009, when he was just 15 years old. The Paris prosecutor stated that despite not being a “closely watched inmate,” the 30-year-old’s transit needed a “level three escort”.
