Two minutes of extreme violence in French prison van escape

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Video: 2 minutes of 'extreme violence' in French prison van escape

Incarville, France:

The attack on a prison van in northern France, which killed two guards and injured three, began at 10:57 a.m. (0857 GMT) and lasted just two minutes.

A black Peugeot SUV with its lights flashing slammed into the vehicle at the motorway toll gate at Incarville, just south of Rouen, the capital of Normandy, followed by a second prison service car.

The attackers, dressed in black and armed with military-style weapons, emerged from a car “stolen a few days earlier”, according to top Paris prosecutor Laure Becu.

The vehicle was “stopped at the edge waiting for the convoy” to cross the toll, Bekuau said, in a sign of an attack prepared down to the last detail.

CCTV images of the scene seen by AFP show the beginning of the attack on the prison van, although a passing truck obscures some details.

Prosecutors say more attackers can be seen approaching from behind the convoy, jumping from a white Audi car.

The prisoner, Mohammed Amra, was being transported that day by five guards – a “level three” security which is the second highest security available for prisoner transport in France, reserved for people implicated in terrorism or organized crime cases .

“Of course the guards were armed”, Becu said, adding that “initial findings from the scene make us think that some may have used their service weapons”.

But the team only had “a basic Sig Sauer (automatic pistol) against military weapons,” said Frederick Liakhoff, the FO union representative at the prison in the northern city of Caen, where Amra was being taken.

‘Very, very loud’

With their “long weapons” (rifles), the attackers “fired multiple times at two prison service vehicles, killing two agents and wounding three others,” Becuau said.

It was the first time since 1992 that a French prison guard had been killed in the line of duty.

Meanwhile, the life of one of the three injured people remains in danger.

“There were loud gunshots, very, very loud,” said Jerome Barbier, who was tending his beehives near the Incarville toll station at the time of the attack.

“After that, there was a pause for a minute or two, there was a big explosion, two gunshots and then it was all over,” a local resident told AFP.

One minute and 40 seconds after the attack, surveillance video shows a man – apparently a guard – being led at gunpoint to a prison van.

Shortly afterwards, a man wearing white trainers comes out.

He and his five black-clad companions flee before the explosion.

Later on Tuesday, “two vehicles were found burnt” a short distance from the scene, Bekuu said.

“The crime scene shows the extreme violence committed by the criminals we are searching for,” he said after visiting the scene.

“The determination of judges and investigators will stand up to the challenge of this violence.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told broadcaster RTL that “considerable” resources were deployed to find fugitive Amra and “the gang that freed him in abusive conditions”.

“More than 450 police and gendarmes” were on the ground Tuesday in the Eure department, where the attack took place, he said, adding that France had also called for “international cooperation.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)