Prison van attack in France: International arrest warrant issued for The Fly in ‘unprecedented’ manhunt

Fugitive Mohamed Amra was being transported from a court hearing in Rouen to a secure prison in Evreux when his prison van was ambushed by four gunmen just after 11am on Tuesday.

Fabrice Moello, a 52-year-old father of two, and Arnaud Garcia, a 35-year-old whose wife was five months pregnant, were killed by machine gun fire in Normandy, while three other guards were seriously injured.

A waiting black Peugeot vehicle drove out and rammed into the front of the van, causing it to suddenly come to a stop, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.

Several men wearing balaclavas and carrying military-style weapons got out of the car and began shooting at the van. The attackers were joined by a second crew who got out of a nearby Audi. According to officials, the entire operation took place in about two minutes.

Frederic Liakhoff, secretary of the prison officers’ union FO-Justice at the penitentiary center in Caen, told AFP that the prison guards who accompanied Amra were armed with “simple Sig Sauer (handguns)” while confronted with weapons of war.

Footage taken by drivers appeared to show the men opening the doors of the van before a man believed to be Amra got out.

As they fled, one of the perpetrators appeared to try to set the black Peugeot on fire.

The gang then sped off in an Audi A5 and a BMW 5 Series, both of which have since been found abandoned and burnt out.

A prisoner nicknamed “The Fly” has become infamous in France overnight after killing two guards in a daring and bloody escape from a prison convoy in Normandy.

Mohamed Amra, 30, has a long and violent criminal history that has now culminated in a high-profile search.

Known as “La Mouche” (The Fly), Amra has also been referred to by other aliases such as “Yanis”, “Momo” and “Schtroumpf” (Smurf). According to French media, these nicknames reflect his elusive nature and extensive activities.

Two officers were shot and three others were seriously injured when the prisoner known as “The Fly” escaped.

Suspected drug lord Mohamed Amra was being transported from a court hearing in Rouen to a secure prison in Evreux when his prison van was ambushed by four gunmen just after 11am on Tuesday.

The two men killed were agents of the regional enforcement center based in Caen.

Fabrice Moello, a 52-year-old father of two, and Arnaud Garcia, a 34-year-old whose wife was five months pregnant, were killed by machine gun fire in Normandy.

Prison officials across France held minutes of silence on Wednesday to remember the slain officers.

“I didn’t close my eyes all night. I cried so much that I have no tears left in my body,” said Dominique Garcia, the father of the 34-year-old slain officer.

Hundreds of police officers are deployed across northern France to find the fugitive gangster known as “The Fly”.

At the request of the French authorities, Interpol issued a Red Notice for the fugitive Mohamed Amra on the second day of the hunt.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the government had deployed unprecedented resources to catch the armed gang involved in the Amra outbreak, including help from abroad. Around 450 officers were deployed to the Eure region, where the attack took place.

“We are investing significant resources, we are making great progress,” he told RTL radio.

Across France, thousands of prison guards staged a symbolic 24-hour closure of prisons in support of their murdered colleagues.

Right-wing politicians have targeted the French government over the deadly escape of notorious gangster “The Fly.”

They said the audacity of the attack showed the centrist government had lost control of drug crime and compared France to countries long known for gang violence.

“We are on the path to Mexicanization,” said Bruno Retailleau, leader of the largest center-right opposition party in the French Senate.

“Prisons are sieves. Dealers run their drug trade from prison.”

The right-wing extremist politician Marion Marechal posted a video on X in which she offered her support to the guards outside a prison in Bordeaux.

“We have the impression of being in a third world country,” she said after one of the guards asked how such a violent attack could take place in France.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal warned the perpetrators would be caught.

“I say it again to the perpetrators: we will pursue you, we will find you and we will punish you,” he told the gathering.

As trucks and family cars passed through the motorway toll booth in Incarville, northwest France, it felt like any other weekday morning.

But just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the drama suddenly unraveled when a gang of masked gunmen ambushed a prison convoy at the stand and released a suspected drug lord nicknamed “The Fly.”

The attackers fired more than 30 shots from automatic weapons, killing two prison guards and wounding three others, before killing the inmate, the 30-year-old, in a brazen attack witnessed by startled motorists on the A417 motorway near the town of Val Mohamed Amra, fled -de-Reuil.

A major manhunt is underway in France for an armed gang who killed two prison officers and seriously injured three others in order to kidnap a prisoner they were escorting.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said “unprecedented” efforts had been made. Hundreds of officers have been mobilized to search for escaped convict Mohamed Amra and the attackers who attacked the convoy carrying him on Tuesday.

Without giving specifics on the extent of the manhunt, he said 450 officers had been deployed to the area of ​​the attack to search for the attackers and clues to their whereabouts.