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

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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.

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