More than 400 police officers are hunting Mohammed Amra, 30, and the assailants who freed him close to the town of Val-de-Reuil in Normandy
A massive manhunt is under way for a prisoner nicknamed “The Fly” freed in an ambush by gunmen who shot dead two prison officers escorting him in northern France.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said “unprecedented” efforts were deployed, with hundreds of officers mobilised in the search for the escaped convict Mohamed Amra and the assailants who ambushed the convoy transporting him on Tuesday morning.
Amra, 30, is on the run with four other men following the bloodbath close to the town of Val-de-Reuil in Normandy.
The violence of the attack shocked France. Prison workers held moments of silence Wednesday outside prisons in Paris and elsewhere to commemorate the officers who were killed.
The officers were named in reports on Wednesday as dad-of-two Fabrice Moello, 52, a captain who had worked for nearly 30 years in the prison service, and expectant father Arnaud Garcia, 34.
Mr Darmanin, speaking on RTL radio, expressed hope that Amra could be caught “in the coming days”.
Without giving full details about the extent of the manhunt, he said 450 officers had been deployed in the region of the attack to search for the assailants and clues about their whereabouts.
“The means employed are considerable,” he said. “We are progressing a lot.”
The convoy was transporting Amra back to jail in the Normandy town of Evreux after a court hearing in Rouen when it was ambushed on the A154 motorway.
Amra had a long criminal record, with at least 13 convictions for robbery and other crimes, the first when he was just 15, said Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
He is well known to the police as the boss of a narcotics network, and for allegedly ordering a mafia-style execution two years ago.
Mr Moello was said to be a captain in the prison service, where he had worked for nearly 30 years, and a father of two, the prosecutor said.
The other officer killed, aged 34, was a married father-to-be, she said.
Éric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister, said the injured guards were all in a “life threatening” condition.
Amra was under “special surveillance”, but not considered radicalised or a terrorist suspect, said Mr Dupond-Moretti.
