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.
The attackers escaped alongside an unarmed inmate.
France has launched a major manhunt to find the fugitives, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
“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.”
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.”
The van was transporting an inmate to Evreux jail in the northern Normandy region after a court hearing in Rouen.
This is a developing news story and will be updated.
sdi/rt (AFP, Reuters, AP)
