Moment gunmen ram French prison van and kill guards to free inmate captured on CCTV

Masked gunmen ambushed a French prison van, killing two guards, to free a suspected drug dealer on Tuesday, 14 May.

CCTV footage showed an SUV ramming into the prison van at a toll booth before men attacked it with automatic weapons and took an inmate out of the vehicle before setting it on fire and fleeing the scene.

A major manhunt was triggered by the incident in Val-de-Reuil in the Eure region.

The inmate is Mohamed Amra - also known as “The Fly”, a 30-year-old drug dealer from northern France, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office and police sources.

He was convicted of burglary on 10 May and was being held at the Val-de-Reuil prison.