At least two French prison guards were shot dead and three others were seriously injured this Tuesday (14) after heavily armed men ambushed a prison van to free an inmate, French police said. The search for the fugitive is ongoing.
The orchestrated attack, which took place amid growing drug-related violence across Europe, took place at around 6am (Brasília time) at a tollbooth in Incarville, in the Eure region of northern France. The prisoner and attackers escaped, police said.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said a massive manhunt had been launched.
“All means are being used to find these criminals. Under my instructions, several hundred police officers and agents were mobilized,” he wrote in X.
Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti said two of the injured police officers were in a particularly critical condition.
“Absolutely everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime,” he told BFM TV. “These are people for whom life means nothing. They will be arrested, tried and punished according to the crime they committed.”
Images on social media showed at least two men in balaclavas carrying rifles circling near an SUV that was on fire. The SUV appears to have been driven into the prison van.
Crimes linked to drug trafficking have spread across Europe, which has been flooded with cocaine in recent years. Marseille has been the epicenter of France's gang violence, with a particularly violent war between drug clans.
The local press named the escaped prisoner as Mohamed A, 30 years old.
A French police source said he was suspected of ordering a murder in Marseille and had ties to the city's powerful “Negros” gang.
Source: CNN Brasil
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