Elite French police are searching for gunmen who attacked a prison van in Normandy, killing at least two prison officers and freeing the high-security inmate they were transporting, reports The Guardian.
The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, told parliament that two prison officers were killed and three others were seriously injured in the ambush at a motorway toll. Attal said the attack had targeted the French republic and the justice system. “The whole country is shocked by this attack of unprecedented violence,” he said after parliament held a minute’s silence for the prison officers.
The attack took place at around 11am at in Incarville in the Eure region of Normandy. A high-security inmate was being transported from a courthouse in Rouen to a prison in Evreux.
A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and then fled. One of them was wounded, the police source said. French media reported that the men were dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and heavily armed.
It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were in total. The prisoner escaped with them.
“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime,” the president, Emmanuel Macron, wrote on X. “We will be uncompromising.” He described the attack as a “shock”.