French police launched a massive manhunt Tuesday after an attack on a prison convoy left an inmate on the run and two guards dead.
The assault shook many in France for its brazen nature — Dupond-Moretti said the attackers used “heavy weapons” — and for its rarity. The last time prison workers were killed in the line of duty was in 1992, he said.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau identified the prisoner as Mohamed Amra, 30, and said he was convicted on Friday of aggravated robbery. She said he is also under criminal investigation by authorities in Marseille for kidnapping and sequestration leading to death.
Axel Ronde, spokesman for the police union of the French Confederation of Christian Workers, said the prisoner who escaped was involved in drug trafficking. Ronde said in a phone interview that the attack was perpetrated by “a commando.”
The episode came as “a shock to us all,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.
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France has in recent months reckoned with the perils of drug trafficking on its soil. In March, Macron visited Marseille, the southern port city on the Mediterranean, to launch what he called “an unprecedented operation to put a stop to drug trafficking.”
The French Senate on Tuesday released the findings of an inquiry on the impact of drug trafficking in France. The report warned that “drug trafficking networks are becoming more and more violent,” citing a spike in deaths in Marseille stemming from “the settling of scores.”
Macron said in a post on X on Tuesday that “everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be served in the name of the French people.”
France’s National Assembly held a moment of silence for the two guards who were killed. Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the assembly, said one of the agents was survived by a wife and two children, and the other by a wife who is five months pregnant.
Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.
