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PARIS — Several hundred police officers were deployed on a massive manhunt in France Tuesday after gunmen ambushed a police van to free an inmate, killing two prison guards.
The morning attack took place at a freeway toll in northern France. The inmate, a drug dealer known as “The Fly,” was being moved from a prison to a court in Normandy, a trip of about 60 kilometers, according to French media reports.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau identified the escaped inmate as Mohamed Amra, who had been convicted on several counts and was “closely watched.”
French President Emmanuel Macron pledged that no efforts would be spared in finding those behind the attacks, describing them as “a shock for all of us”.
According to French media BFM TV, two police vehicles were attacked by several gunmen armed with “heavy weapons.” In addition to those killed, two prison guards remain in critical condition.
The organized nature of the attack puts a spotlight on the rise in drug trafficking in France ahead of next month’s European election. The Tuesday ambush came as the French senate released a report saying the country was being “submerged” by drugs-related crime.
“The intensification of drug trafficking” in the countryside and in towns, the report warned, “can expose citizens to veritable scenes of war.”
