Two prison officers who were killed in an attack on a police convoy in France have been named – as Interpol issued a red notice search warrant for escaped prisoner Mohamed Amra, nicknamed “The Fly”.
Dad-of-two Fabrice Moello, 52, and soon-to-be-father Arnaud Garcia, 34, were killed and three others seriously wounded when the convoy transporting Amra from court to jail was ambushed at a motorway tollbooth near Rouen in Normandy by gunmen wearing balaclavas.
Image: Fabrice Moello and Arnaud Garcia
Amra – a suspected drug boss – is at the centre of the police manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack after escaping from the prison van during the assault.
Several hundred police officers have been deployed nationwide to find the 30-year-old convict and gunmen. It is unclear how many assailants were involved.
CCTV footage showed a black Peugeot SUV driving into the front of the white prison van, with other video showing at least two armed men carrying rifles circling the car in flames on the A154 motorway.
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1:01
Who is escaped prisoner Mohamed Amra, nicknamed ‘The Fly’?
French media reports suggested a second car used during the attack was a Sedan – stolen in the town of Pontault-Combault in northern France – which had been following the convoy and together with the SUV trapped the prison van.
The two cars were later found torched a few miles away.
Image: Mohamed Amra
Mr Moello, a married father of twins, held the rank of captain and had joined the prison service in 1996, according to French media reports.
Mr Garcia was also married and had been a brigadier supervisor since November 2009.
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His father told French radio network RTL his son loved his job as he called for a firm response from the government.
“My son was murdered! This ambush was worked on, prepared, premeditated,” said Dominique Garcia. “This act must not go unpunished.”
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti told BFM TV: “Absolutely everything will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime.
“These are people for whom life means nothing. They will be arrested, judged and punished according to the crime they committed.”
He added two of the three injured officers are in a critical condition.
The attack has sparked a nationwide outcry – with a day of blockades dubbed “Dead Prisons Day” announced in jails across France today as prison officer unions respond in anger to Tuesday’s attack.
Local media on Wednesday reported demonstrations outside of prisons across the country – including in the French capital Paris, Rouen, Nice, Grasse, Draguignan and Amiens.
Image: CCTV footage showing a gunman at the scene. Pic: Snapchat/Yan78780
‘It was a massacre’
In Yvelines, 130 people blocked a remand centre and set fire to wooden pallets, Le Parisien reported.
Inside, around 15 prison staff went about their everyday jobs – compared with the 40 usually onsite.
In addition, the day’s prisoner transportations and visits were cancelled, according to the newspaper.
Hubert Gratraud, a union representative, said: “There is an awareness of the dangerousness. We need resources and training. We need to get as close as possible to the reality on the ground: anything can happen.”
“People were shot at point-blank range, it was a massacre, a butchery,” said Ronan Roudaut, another union official.
A minute’s silence was also held across the French criminal justice system including prisons and courtrooms at 11am local time in addition to the symbolic 24-hour shutdown of jails.
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Outside Evreux jail a man lit candles for the guards killed and injured in the prison van ambush – and for his pal who was shot dead in a shooting he blamed on Amra.
He took seven tea lights from his pockets and laid them in a line beside the towering, metal jail doors, his hands shaking as he lit the wicks.
The man, who would not give his name, told Sky’s crime correspondent Martin Brunt: “I’ve come here because that man killed my friend and I’m here to honour the others he killed yesterday.”
He said his friend was one of two men killed in a car attacked by gunmen on an estate in Evreux last year, an attack he said was one of the various alleged crimes Amra was being question about.
Image: Wooden pallets are set on fire as prison staff block the entrance of a detention centre in Val De Reuil, France. Pic: Reuters
‘Assassination attempt’
Police sources said fugitive gangster Amra was involved in international drug dealing, a suspect in a kidnap and murder case in Marseille, and had ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.
He had recently been sentenced to 18 months for burglary in the suburbs of Evreux, northwest France, reported BFM TV.
The French broadcaster said his nickname was La Mouche – or “The Fly” in English.
A prison source told Le Parisien that Amra tried to saw the bars off his cell a few days ago – with the criminal reportedly put in solitary confinement afterwards.
The publication said he is suspected of having ordered an assassination attempt – linked to drugs – targeting a Frenchman in Spain in the summer of 2023.
It added Amra, born in Rouen in northern France, was also re-evaluated as ‘Escort 3’ risk category, making more guards necessary during transportation.
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1:03
CCTV shows French prison van attack
Dangerous fugitive’s mum speaks
Amra’s mother told RTL she had no idea her son had planned an escape.
“I went to Baumettes to see him, he was in solitary confinement, I went to [the prison of] Evreux once. He spoke normally, he didn’t show me anything. I don’t understand,” she said.
“They carry him around from right to left, they put him in solitary confinement instead of judging him once and for all.”
She said she “broke down” and “cried” when she found out what had happened.
“It makes me sick. How can lives be taken like that?” she said of the two fatalities.
“I don’t know what’s going on in his head, he’s not talking to me. He’s my son and he doesn’t talk to me about anything,” she added.
‘We’re on a path to Mexicanisation’
Right-wing politicians said the brazenness of the assault showed the government had lost its grip on drug crime, comparing France to countries with longstanding reputations for endemic gang violence.
“We’re on a path to Mexicanisation,” Bruno Retailleau, leader of the main centre-right opposition party in the French senate, said in a radio interview.
The attack came on the same day the senate released a report on drug trafficking, warning the country faced a “tipping point” from rising violence.
We must “catch the bastards who did this and put them out of harm’s way,” said French politician Adrien Quatennens on Sud Radio.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
Image: The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
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Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
Donald Trump has announced a 10% trade tariff on all imports from the UK – as he unleashed sweeping tariffs across the globe.
Speaking at a White House event entitled “Make America Wealthy Again”, the president held up a chart detailing the worst offenders – which also showed the new tariffs the US would be imposing.
“This is Liberation Day,” he told a cheering audience of supporters, while hitting out at foreign “cheaters”.
He claimed “trillions” of dollars from the “reciprocal” levies he was imposing on others’ trade barriers would provide relief for the US taxpayer and restore US jobs and factories.
Mr Trump said the US has been “looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations.
Image: Pic: AP
His first tariff announcement was a 25% duty on all car imports from midnight – 5am on Thursday, UK time.
Mr Trump confirmed the European Union would face a 20% reciprocal tariff on all other imports. China’s rate was set at 34%.
The UK’s rate of 10% was perhaps a shot across the bows over the country’s 20% VAT rate, though the president’s board suggested a 10% tariff imbalance between the two nations.
It was also confirmed that further US tariffs were planned on some individual sectors including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical mineral imports.
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The ramping up of duties promises to be painful for the global economy. Tariffs on steel and aluminium are already in effect.
The UK government signalled there would be no immediate retaliation.
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “We will always act in the best interests of UK businesses and consumers. That’s why, throughout the last few weeks, the government has been fully focused on negotiating an economic deal with the United States that strengthens our existing fair and balanced trading relationship.
“The US is our closest ally, so our approach is to remain calm and committed to doing this deal, which we hope will mitigate the impact of what has been announced today.
“We have a range of tools at our disposal and we will not hesitate to act. We will continue to engage with UK businesses including on their assessment of the impact of any further steps we take.
“Nobody wants a trade war and our intention remains to secure a deal. But nothing is off the table and the government will do everything necessary to defend the UK’s national interest.”
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The EU has pledged to retaliate, which is a problem for Northern Ireland.
Should that scenario play out, the region faces the prospect of rising prices because all its imports are tied to EU rules under post-Brexit trading arrangements.
It means US goods shipped to Northern Ireland would be subject to the EU’s reprisals.
The impact of a trade war would be expected to be widely negative, with tit-for-tat tariffs risking job losses, a ramping up of prices and cooling of global trade.
Research for the Institute for Public Policy Research has suggested more than 25,000 direct jobs in the UK car manufacturing industry alone could be at risk from the tariffs on car exports to the US.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) had said the tariff costs could not be absorbed by manufacturers and may lead to a review of output.
The tariffs now on UK exports pose a big risk to growth and the so-called headroom Chancellor Rachel Reeves was forced to restore to the public finances at the spring statement, risking further spending cuts or tax rises ahead to meet her fiscal rules.
A member of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), David Miles, told MPs on Tuesday that US tariffs at 20% or 25% maintained on the UK for five years would “knock out all the headroom the government currently has”.
But he added that a “very limited tariff war” that the UK stays out of could be “mildly positive”.
He said: “There’s a bit of trade that will get diverted to the UK, and some of the exports from China, for example, that would have gone to the US, they’ll be looking for a home for them in the rest of the world.
“And stuff would be available in the UK a bit cheaper than otherwise would have been. So there is one, not central scenario at all, which is very, very mildly potentially positive to the UK. All the other ones which involve the UK facing tariffs are negative, and they’re negative to very different extents.”