A prisoner is on the run in France after escaping during an ambush that left two prison guards dead. 

The inmate was being transported in a prison van when heavily armed and hooded men set upon the convoy.

Here is what we know so far about the inmate and how he escaped.

Who is the prison escapee?

The escaped prisoner is Mohamed Amra, who is nicknamed “La Mouche”, or “The Fly”, according to reports by French media.

The 30-year-old is a drug dealer from northern France, police sources said.

One of the sources said Amra is suspected of ordering a murder in Marseille and has ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.

He was under high surveillance and had recently been sentenced for burglary.

He was also under investigation for a kidnapping and homicide case in Marseille, according to public prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

However, he was not considered a “radicalised” prisoner, according to police sources speaking to French newspaper Le Figaro.

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Previous escape attempt

A prison source told Le Parisien Amra had tried to saw the bars off his cell two days before the convoy ambush.

He had reportedly been placed in solitary confinement and his surveillance level had been raised after the escape attempt.

What happened in the ambush?

Amra was being transported in a van to Evreux jail in Normandy after a court hearing in Rouen, about 35 miles away, when it was ambushed by heavily armed men.

Two male prison officers were shot dead and three others were seriously injured during the attack, which happened on a motorway around 9am local time.

Several men used two vehicles to target the convoy, a police source told the French news agency AFP.

Footage from the scene showed at least two men in balaclavas carrying rifles circling near an SUV that was in flames. It appeared to have been rammed into the front of the prison van.

What has the police response been?

Several hundred police officers have been mobilised in a major manhunt.

“All means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilised,” interior minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X.

Public prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced an investigation into the attack, which is now considered a case of organised crime and murder.

The investigation will also address organised escape attempts, possession of military-grade weapons and conspiracy to commit crime.

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