A criminal mastermind reportedly tried to escape a prison two days before it is alleged he shot dead two guards.
Mohammed Amra, who is nicknamed "The Fly", is said to have been one of four armed men whom attacked a prison van today at a toll booth near Val-de-Reuil, Normandy. It left two guards dead and three more are fighting for life in hospital. It is now believed Amra, 30, was convicted of burglary on Friday and was being transferred today from La Santé prison in Croulabarbe, Paris, to the Évreux remand centre, around 60 miles away. However, Amra tried to saw the bars of his cell two days ago, according to a prison source in Le Parisien.
Two vehicles - thought to be a white Audi A5 and a BMW 5 series - surrounded the prison van on the A154 motorway at the Incarville tollbooth, located in the town of Val-de-Reuil (Eure) at 11am today. Following the attack, Amra, it is said, fled with the attackers, in two vehicles which they quickly abandoned and burned before boarding a third vehicle, unidentified at this stage.
An investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor's office is investigating "murder in attempted murder by an organised gang", which alone is punishable by life imprisonment, "escape and organised gang”, "acquisition and possession of weapons of war" and "criminal association with a view to the commission of a crime".
Speaking at press conference today, France's justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti said: "Everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime... [These are] People for whom life weighs nothing... The last deaths in our prison administration date back to 1992."
Footage shared widely online from inside a bus shows a black van on fire after it ploughed into the prison van. Masked gunmen can be seen aiming their weapons at the van in front of terrified onlookers. The two men killed were identified as agents from the Regional Centre for Judicial Extractions (PREJ), based in Caen, northwest France. One was a 21-year-old father of two who leaves a widow, and the other an expectant dad whose wife was five months pregnant.