The prison van was attacked after 11am on the A154 motorway near the Incarville tollbooth, located in the town of Val-de-Reuil, Normandy, northern France.
At least two French guards were killed, and two others were left wounded, following the attack which saw the assailants and detainee, Mohammed Amra, 30, managing to escape the scene.
The article also relates:
A police source told Le Parisien that he was 'the head of a narcotics network' in France, and accordingly considered hugely dangerous.
The French publication also reported that Mohammed had attempted to escape his cell just two days before Tuesday's escape.
He had allegedly been placed in solitary confinement an his surveillance level was raised to 'Escort 3'.
Amra, who had a total of 13 convictions to his name, was under ‘special surveillance’, but not considered radicalised or a terrorist suspect, said Éric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister.
At the time of the attack, Amra was on his way from Évreux prison to court for a commital hearing that would have been made public. This would have made the route relatively easy to work out.
Prosecutors working for the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organised Crime (JUNALCO) have opened an enquiry into ‘murder and attempted murder by an organised gang’ – offences punishable with a life sentence.
They are also investigating ‘escape in an organised gang’, ‘acquisition and possession of weapons of war’ and ‘criminal association with a view to the commission of a crime,’ said Moretti.
Laure Beccuau, the Paris public prosecutor, confirmed that Amera had previously been indicted by the Specialised Inter-regional Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille for ‘kidnapping and sequestration leading to death’.
The two guards killed were identified as agents from the Regional Centre for Judicial Extractions (PREJ), based in Caen, without their names being disclosed.
One was a 21-year-old father of two who leaves a widow, and the other an expectant father whose wife was five months pregnant.
Sounds like a Mission: Impossible movie.
ReplyDeleteOr too many criminal migrants.
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