A large-scale manhunt for an armed group that killed two prison guards and gravely injured three more in order to free an escorted prisoner was under way in France on Wednesday.
According to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, “unprecedented” measures were taken, involving the deployment of hundreds of officers in the hunt for Mohamed Amra, the escaped convict, and the attackers who ambushed the convoy that was carrying him on Tuesday.
The savagery of the attack shocked France. Prison employees observed silent minutes outside jails in Paris and other locations on Wednesday in remembrance of the fallen police officers.
The interior minister Darmanin said he hoped to catch Amra in the coming days.
According to him, 450 officers had been sent to the scene of the attack to look for the attackers and any leads as to their whereabouts.
The convoy was transporting Amra back to jail in the Normandy town of Évreux after a court hearing in Rouen when it was ambushed on the A154 freeway.
Amra, 30, 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.
One of the officers killed was a 52-year-old 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.
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