Hundreds of law enforcement officers have been deployed to find a criminal known as “The Fly” and the gunmen who helped him escape from a prison van in France on Tuesday morning in a brazen raid that left two prison officers dead and another three seriously injured.
The inmate, 30-year-old Mohamed Amra, was being transported from a court appearance back to a prison in Évreux in the northwestern Normandy region when a car rammed into the van at a toll booth. The armed criminals then opened fire.
The daylight ambush shocked France and has led to hundreds of prison officers going on strike Wednesday protesting against the violence and dangers of their jobs, with authorities under acute pressure to apprehend Amra and his accomplices.
