At least two French prison officers were reported dead as four armed men ambushed their van on inmate transfer duty in the country's northwest on Tuesday.

Iran PressEurope: Two prison officers have been killed and three others injured after their convoy carrying a high-profile prisoner was attacked in France. The prisoner they were transporting, Mohamed Amra, is now on the run.

The French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that "all means are being used to find these criminals".

The "Epervier" (Sparrowhawk) plan was triggered in response to the incident, he said, with several hundred police officers mobilized.

The van was taking Amra - nicknamed La Mouche (The Fly), according to local media - to Evreux prison, when it was ambushed on a motorway in Eure, Normandy at around 11 am. He was expected to attend a court hearing in Rouen.

French authorities said the people who attacked the convoy had military-grade weapons while working to secure the area and apprehend the assailants.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron and Minister of Justice Éric Dupond-Moretti both expressed their condolences to the families and colleagues of the slain officers.

"Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people," Macron said on X.

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