LAST UPDATE | 15 May

GLOBAL POLICE BODY Interpol has issued a red notice at the request of France for the arrest of the convict who escaped in an attack on a prison van that killed two guards yesterday.

“A red notice has been issued at the request of French authorities for escaped prisoner Mohamed Amra, alias ‘The Fly’,” Interpol said.

A red notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and arrest a wanted individual.

The Interpol notice comes as more than 450 police officers and gendarmes have been mobilised for the search in the northern department of Eure where the attack took place.

“We have put a lot of resources into finding not only the person who escaped” but also “the gang that released him under such despicable circumstances”, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told the RTL broadcaster.

“We are making a lot of progress,” he added. Apparently raising the possibility the fugitives could have fled abroad, he also spoke of “international cooperation”.

But over a day after the attack, there was still no sign of them being found.

Coordinated attack

Two prison officers were killed in the attack and three others wounded, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said last night.

One of the injured men was fighting for his life in hospital and two more were receiving critical care, she said.

The incident took place late yesterday morning at a road toll in Incarville in Eure.

The prosecutor said the prison van was rammed head-on by a stolen Peugeot vehicle as it went through the toll crossing.

But the van and another vehicle in the prison convoy were also followed by an Audi.

Gunmen emerged from the two cars and shot at both prison vehicles.

French television channels broadcast footage of the attack taken by surveillance cameras at the toll, showing the Peugeot colliding head on with the prison van.

In the video, several gunmen dressed in black emerge from both attack vehicles. A firefight ensues and one man appears to be guided away from the van by the gunmen.

A vehicle believed to have been used by the attackers was later found as a burned-out wreck at a different location.

The prison officers who died, Fabrice Moello, 52, and Arnaud Garcia, 34, were the first to be killed in the line of duty since 1992.

‘On verge of explosion’

Prison officer unions announced a day of minimum service today and asked for urgent measures to improve the safety of staff.

Today, officers across the country held a minute of silence outside their prisons to remember the fallen colleagues.

Officers blocked entrances to the prison in an action unions warned could be renewed, with some burning tyres and brandishing slogans like ”Prison is on the verge of explosion”.

Mohamed Amra Interpol Interpol

Prosecutor Beccuau said Amra, 30, had last week been convicted of aggravated robbery and charged in a case of abduction leading to death.

A source close to the case said Amra was suspected of involvement in drug trafficking and of ordering gangland killings.

Another source said he is suspected of being at the head of a criminal network.

His lawyer Hugues Vigier said Amra had already made an escape attempt at the weekend by sawing the bars of his cell and said he was shocked by the “inexcusable” and “insane” violence.

Includes reporting by © AFP 2024