France
After an attack on a prisoner transport: prisoner on the run
Forensics and police officers at the scene of the attack at a toll booth in northern France. photo
© Alain Jocard/AFP/dpa
It sounds like a gangster film: Hooded figures attack a prisoner transport, shoot two officers and free the prisoner. Now France is looking for the perpetrators.
After the attack on a prisoner transport with two deaths France continues to search for the perpetrators and the freed prisoner. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin assured RTL that “unprecedented means of international cooperation and criminal investigation” would be mobilized.
On Tuesday, a prisoner transport was attacked and shot at at a toll booth in the Eure region of Normandy. A car rammed the van from the front, forcing it to stop. Another vehicle came from behind. The attackers fired machine guns at the van, killing two officers. Three others were seriously injured. One of the two officers killed leaves behind two children, the other a woman who is five months pregnant.
The prisoner was then able to escape with the four attackers. The 30-year-old, nicknamed “The Fly,” was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison for, among other things, burglary and grand theft. He is also accused of intentional homicide and false imprisonment in other cases. According to media reports, he has contacts with organized crime. Shortly before, he had tried to saw through the bars in his cell to free himself.
Two cars have now been found a few kilometers away, which could be the getaway vehicles. However, there was no trace of the perpetrators. Interpol issued a wanted notice for the man on Wednesday. The prisoner transport was not escorted by police – unions are now demanding better protection for prison officers and more staff and have protested in front of prisons across the country.
Darmanin on RTL report BFMTV report franceinfo Interpol manhunt