An ‘unprecedented’ search is underway in northern France for a prisoner who escaped after a deadly ambush.
Mohamed Amra, known as The Fly, was being transported back to prison from Normandy Courthouse on Tuesday when a car crashed his prison van into a tollbooth.
Two police officers were killed and three others were seriously injured when armed men opened fire on their vehicle.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said: “We are using all our means to find these criminals.”
Prime Minister Darmanin told French media on Wednesday that the attack was an act of “cold-blooded barbarism” and that around 450 gendarmes and police had been mobilized for an “unprecedented” search in Normandy’s Eurege.
President Emmanuel Macron said France was “taking all measures to find the culprits.”
Meanwhile, the French prison guards’ union called for strikes at institutions across the country on Wednesday in support of the two people killed.
In a joint statement, the unions called for urgent action to improve staff safety, including promoting video conferencing and ‘drastically reducing extraditions’ of prisoners to court hearings and ‘reorganizing’ escort levels.
A minute’s silence will be observed at 11am (09:00 GMT) on Wednesday, with protests taking place outside French prisons, including in Paris, according to local media.
French Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti said he would meet with union representatives.
