– Mixed atmosphere between manhunt and protests from jailers
The 350 investigators mobilized track down the fugitives. But the anger of the prison officers continues after the death of their colleagues.
Published today at 1:22 p.m.
A person puts wood on a fire as employees of the Caen-Ifs prison block a road during a protest, near the town of Caen in northern France.
AFP/Lou Benoist
Some 350 investigators are mobilized in France in the hunt for the commando who attacked a prison van with heavy weapons on Tuesday, killing two agents. The assault allowed the escape of a repeat offender prisoner.
The attack, spectacular and extremely rare in France, was carried out late Tuesday morning by a commando who launched a ramming car against a van at the Incarville toll booth, before opening fire with an automatic weapon against its occupants. .
The police are “progressing very well” in their investigation, assured Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on the France 2 channel. “We are tracking you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal also told the fugitives on Wednesday. “The investigation is progressing” and mobilizing “massive resources”, he assured.
Progress of the investigation
The investigation is progressing to find the commando who attacked a prison van, killing two officers and injuring three others to escape a repeat offender, assured Gérald Darmanin on Thursday, while angry prison officers blocked the prisons again.
“350 investigators” are mobilized on the trail of the perpetrators of the bloody attack and the detainee on the run, Mohamed Amra and “they are progressing very well” in their investigations, said the Minister of the Interior on France 2.
A search took place on Wednesday in Évreux (Eure) as part of this investigation, a Source close to the matter told AFP, without further details.
The hunt is also organized beyond borders, with “red notice” issued by Interpol at the request of the French authorities to locate the escapee in case he managed to leave the country.
The “red” notice issued by Interpol to find Mohamed Amra.
AFP PHOTO/INTERPOL
The criminal record of Mohamed Amra, 30 years old, contains 13 entries. He had been detained since January 2022 at the Évreux remand center serving several sentences, notably for extortion and armed violence.
According to a Source close to the case, he is also involved in drug trafficking, suspected of having ordered murders linked to this trafficking.
Blocking movement
Shocked by the murder of two of their colleagues, shot dead Tuesday morning in the ambush at the Incarville toll booth (Eure), the prison officers decided to renew on Thursday the movement to block establishments started the day before, to “maintain the pressure » about the government.
In Caen, around forty agents gathered around 6:30 a.m. in front of the penitentiary center, where the victims were based. In Caen-Ifs, another establishment at the other end of the city, nearly 70 agents were burning tires and faces remained closed, marked by mourning and fatigue.
Caen-Ifs prison employees stand near a fire as they block a road during a demonstration, near the town of Caen.
AFP/Lou Benoist
Their union representatives were received on Wednesday in Paris by the Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti, who made several commitments. But they wanted a written agreement, which was sent to them Thursday morning.
“The reception of the announcements is mixed locally, it does not seem sufficient for the moment and we are suspicious,” said Loïc Boyer, head of the FO justice union in Caen.
“All establishments are blocked”
This “record of decisions” plans in particular to equip agents with long weapons, in addition to current handguns, during transfers and to limit the most dangerous extractions, by using videoconferencing or moving magistrates to prison. .
For Ludovic Motheron, CGT prison manager in New Aquitaine, there is still “nothing concrete”. “They promised us a few little things to try to reduce the pressure a little” but nothing immediate, and at the Mont-de-Marsan penitentiary center (Landes), “we toughened up the movement,” he said. he declares.
Staff members observe a minute of silence during a protest outside the Lutterbach-Mulhouse prison center in Lutterbach, eastern France, May 15, 2024.
AFP/SEBASTIEN BOZON
“All establishments are blocked” in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur with just a “minimum service” provided, according to Jessy Zagari, FO regional delegate.
Study the proposals
“Colleagues are studying the list of proposals and if it is approved, we will pack it up, but for the moment many establishments would rather see additional points and measures added,” he said.
The small Norman village of Incarville, shaken on Tuesday by the deadly attack organized by the heavily armed commando at the toll barrier on the A13 motorway, is organizing a tribute to the two killed agents on Thursday at 6 p.m., a moment of “recollection silent” without speech, according to the mayor, interviewed by the local weekly La Dépêche de Louviers.
For his part, the Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, must go at the end of the afternoon to the gendarmerie brigade of Louviers (Eure), neighboring Incarville, to speak with the officials “who first intervened at the scene of the deadly toll ambush.
Videos of this spectacular attack were broadcast on social networks and Gérald Darmanin announced that he had taken legal action to investigate the leak of these images.
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