France launches manhunt after deadly ambush on prison van

At least two French prison officers were shot dead and three injured on Tuesday in an ambush on a prison van, French police said on Tuesday.

Authorities launched a major manhunt after the attackers escaped alongside an unarmed inmate.

What did French officials say about the manhunt?

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said police were doing everything to find the fugitives.

"All means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilized," Darmanin said on the platform X, formerly Twitter.

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said two of the injured officers were in a critical state.

"Absolutely everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime," the minister told France's BFM TV broadcaster. "These are people for whom life means nothing. They will be arrested, judged and punished according to the crime they committed."

Dupond-Moretti said that this was the first time since 1992 that on-duty prison officers had been killed in France.

President Emmanuel Macron vowed that everything would be done to find those behind the ambush on the prison van.

"This morning's attack, which cost the lives of prison administration agents, is a shock for all of us," Macron said in a post on X. "The nation stands alongside the families, the injured and their colleagues."

What else do we know about the ambush?

The van was transporting an inmate to Evreux jail in the northern Normandy region after a court hearing in Rouen.

The A154 freeway that was the site of the assault has been closed.

The Agence France-Presse news agency cited a police source as saying that the attackers arrived in two vehicles and rammed the police van.

It was not clear how many attackers there were in total.

The escaped inmate had been convicted of burglary and was also under investigation for a kidnapping and homicide case in Marseille, according to public prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

According to the Paris prosecutor's office and police sources, the inmate is a 30-year-old drug dealer known as "The Fly."

Beccuau said that authorities had launched an investigation into a case of organized crime and murder.

The investigation will also look into escape attempts, possession of military-grade weapons and conspiracy to commit crime.

sdi/rt (AFP, Reuters, AP)