France launches manhunt after attack on prison transport

At least two prison officers have been killed in an attack on a jail van in northern France. French media are reporting that an inmate who was being transported has escaped. Ross Cullen reports that three other officers were severely injured in the attack by armed men.

The BBC further reports that hundreds of police officers are searching for a prisoner in north-west France after he escaped from a van in a deadly ambush near Rouen. Mohamed “The Fly” Amra was being taken from court to prison when a car rammed the prison van at a toll booth. Gunmen then attacked the prison officers, with two officers killed and two critically injured. Amra and his accomplices reportedly escaped in a car, with a burnt-out vehicle found nearby He was recently convicted of burglary and had been charged with a kidnapping that led to a death. French President Emmanuel Macron said “everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime” The French justice minister revealed that the wife of one of the killed officers is five months pregnant