Two French prison officers killed in van attack, prisoner escapes (2024)

French police were on Tuesday, May 14, hunting for a group of gunmen who killed two prison officers in an attack at a motorway toll that freed a convict linked to gangland drug killings. President Emmanuel Macron vowed that everything would be done to find those behind the attack, with the inmate also still at large as well as those who helped him escape. Two prison officers were killed in the attack and three others were wounded, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said. Another was fighting for his life in hospital and two more were receiving critical care, she said.

The incident took place late on Tuesday morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France. The inmate was being transported between his prison in the town of Evreux and court in the regional center of Rouen in Normandy. A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and then fled. One of them was wounded, the police source said. It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were in total.

Call for a 'Dead Prisons' day

The man who escaped, born in 1994, is called Mohamed Amra, the prosecutor's office said. "He was convicted (...) of a burglary" on May 10. He is also under investigation "for kidnapping and confinement resulting in death."

The case has been handed to prosecutors from France's office for the fight against organized crime, known by their acronym JUNALCO. A source close to the case said that Amra was suspected of involvement in drug trafficking and suspected of ordering gangland killings. Another source said he is suspected of being at the head of a network.

"Contrary to what was previously indicated, he [did not have the status of] detainee of particular concern (DPS), but required a level 3 escort," the prosecutor's office said in a corrected statement. A level 3 escort requires a minimum of three prison officers, one of whom may be the driver (or three prison officers and a private driver), plus armed reinforcements from regional intervention and security teams (ERIS) or internal security forces (FSI).

All of the prison unions have called for a "blockade" of prisons and other facilities on Wednesday, May 15, "in support" of the two officers killed. "This day must be a 'dead prisons' day, and may be renewed," said the inter-union group in a press release, calling for "an audience with the Minister of Justice and his departments" to discuss a series of demands.

'We will be uncompromising'

Dupond-Moretti immediately headed to a crisis cell at the Justice Ministry. "These are people for whom life counts for nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged and they will be punished according to the crime they committed," he said.

The prison officers who died, both men, were the first to be killed in the line of duty since 1992, he added. One of them was married and had two children while the other "left a wife who is five months pregnant," he said.

The prison convoy had no police escort, according to a source close to the case. The source said guards were not systematic and only used for high-security prisoners, which was not the case for the inmate who fled.

A unit of the GIGN elite police force has been dispatched to try and apprehend the suspects. Traffic was stopped on the A154 motorway where the incident took place.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on X he had ordered the activation of France's Epervier plan, an operation launched by the gendarmerie in such situations. "All means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilized," he said.