French prisoner: Who is 'The Fly'? Why is he on the run, after deadly bust from prison van convoy in France?

Mohamed Amra was known as ‘La Mouche’, meaning ‘The Fly’

A manhunt is underway for a second day in France after a prisoner escaped following a deadly and violent bust on a convoy in the northern region of Normandy.

The convoy was transporting prisoner Mohamed Amra, 30, to Evreux jail after a court hearing in Rouen, around an hour from Paris, when the vehicle was ambushed.

A car rammed his prison van at a toll booth and a group of armed accomplices dressed in black opened fire on the vehicle, killing two officers and seriously injuring three others.

Prison officers gather and block the entrance of the jail during a protest in Beziers, south of France. French police are hunting for a group of gunmen who killed two prison officers and wounded three others, in an attack of a prison van transporting an inmate at a motorway toll in Incarville, northern France. Picture: Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images

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

The attack is considered to be a case of organised crime and murder, while the investigation will also address organised escape attempts, possession of military-grade weapons and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Who is ‘The Fly?’

Known as “La Mouche” – French for “The Fly” – Amra was not a “closely watched inmate”, suggesting he was not considered to be dangerous. However, he was being transported with a “level three escort”, requiring five prison officers to travel with him.

Mohamed Amra escaped from a prison van after a ramming attack at a motorway toll in northern France on Tuesday. Picture: AFP via Getty Images

Amra is reported to be involved in a narcotics network, while he was also under investigation for a kidnapping and homicide case in Marseille.

Last week, he had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for aggravated thefts, mainly from supermarkets and other businesses between August and October 2019. He has been held in prisons in Marseille, Paris and Rouen throughout the legal process.

Had the prisoner previously tried to escape?

Amra’s lawyer said the prisoner had made an attempt to flee his cell at the weekend, by sawing the bars. But lawyer Hugues Vigier said he was shocked at the "inexcusable” level of violence used in the bust.

“This does not correspond to the impression that I had of him,” Mr Vigier told a French TV station.

Amra’s mother also said she did not have any idea he was planning to escape. "He doesn't talk to me – he's my son, he doesn't talk to me about anything at all,” she said in an interview with French media.

She said she had been to visit him in prison several times, but added that he “never gave anything away”.

“I don't understand,” she added. “I broke down, I cried – I was so unwell. How can lives be taken away in this way?”

Posting on X, French president Emmanuel Macron said the attack was “a shock for all of us”.

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Paris state prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the van carrying the prisoner was “immediately” hit by a Peugeot car after crossing the toll barrier in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France.

“Men with long guns got out, joined by other armed men who got out of an Audi vehicle, which was likely following the prison vehicle,” he said.

Local media reported the white Audi A5 was found burned out in nearby Vatteville, Eure.

One of the prison officers who was killed had been expecting a child with his partner, who was five months pregnant, while the other had a wife and two children.