Interpol issues red notice for escaped French inmate

An international arrest warrant was issued yesterday for the inmate who escaped during an armed ambush in northern France on Tuesday. Interpol said it issued a red notice for Mohamed Amra at the request of the French authorities.

- TARA COBHAM

The suspected drugs boss, nicknamed “La Mouche”, or “The Fly”, was being transported from a court hearing in Rouen to a secure jail in Evreux when his prison van was ambushed by four armed attackers.

The assailants, armed with sub-machine guns, killed two prison officers, seriously injured three others and sprung Amra shortly after 11am local time on the A154 motorway in Val-de-Reuil in Normandy.

French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said guards Fabrice Moello, a 52-year-old father of two who had worked in the prison service for nearly 30 years, and Arnaud Garcia, a 35year-old whose wife is five months pregnant, both from Caen, were “slaughtered like dogs by men for whom life means nothing”.

Vowing the gang will be caught, prime minister Gabriel Attal said in parliament, to applause from lawmakers: “We are tracking you, we will find you and we will punish you. They will pay for what they have done.”