A dangerous inmate dubbed ‘The Fly’ is on the run after a prison van was attacked this morning leaving two guards dead.
The attack took place at 11am when a prison convoy was ambushed by four armed men. A van carrying prisoners was blocked at a toll booth near Val-de-Reuil, Normandy, France, by masked attackers brandishing machine guns.
Terrified onlookers watched the horror unfold as officers attempted to take escaped detainee Mohammed Amra, 30, to Rouen, where he was due to appear before a judge. Footage shared widely online from inside a bus shows a black van on fire after it ploughed into the prison van.
France’s justice minister confirmed at least one inmate – named in the French media as Amra – is on the run and that two guards have died while three people have been left with serious injuries. The escaped prisoner is considered dangerous and has a past conviction for attempted murder. A police source told Le Parisien that he was ‘the head of a narcotics network’ in France and was being transferred from one detention centre to another, on a secret route.
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Footage shared online from the scene in northern France showed attackers in hoods holding guns and armed officers patrolling the area. Military police officers (gendarmerie) in the region activated the Épervier plan, which placed all levels of security on high alert and deployed armed police to cover and search the entire department of Eure. Around 200 members of the military police force are confirmed to have been at the scene.
The attackers fled the scene in two vehicles. One of the cars – a white Audi A5 – has since been found burnt out in the town of Watteville. The second, a BMW 5 series, was seen heading in the direction of Louviers and Evreux. French Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, wrote on the X social media platform: “Two of our prison officers have died, three are seriously injured. All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and their colleagues.”
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Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, tweeted this afternoon: “This morning’s attack, which cost the lives of prison officers, is a shock to us all. The Nation stands alongside the families, the injured and their colleagues. Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people. We will be intractable.”
But what else do we know about Amra? Le Parisien reports that he attempted to escape just two days before today’s escape by sawing the bars of his cell. According to the report, Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said he had been convicted of burglary theft on May 10 and indicted by the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille for ‘kidnapping and sequestration leading to death’.
The publication states that he was also indicted for attempted homicide by an organized gang in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray and spent time at Baumettes prison and the Santé prison, before being moved to Évreux remand centre. After his alleged prison break bid, his security level is said to have been ramped up.
Do you know who The Fly is? Get in touch by emailing features@trinitymirror.com.
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