Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti said two officers were killed and three others were seriously injured in the attack. Gendarmerie investigators also reported two deaths and three seriously injured people. One of the injured people was said to be in mortal danger. A police officer had previously spoken of three deaths.
The attack was reportedly carried out by a team of several perpetrators using two vehicles. One of these vehicles was found burned out shortly after the crime. The police officer did not say where the vehicle was found.
The A154 motorway was temporarily closed. The police were deployed at the toll booth with several vehicles, as an AFP correspondent on site reported.
Justice Minister Dupond-Moretti convened a crisis team after the attack. He announced that he would do “everything” to find “the perpetrators of this heinous crime.” “These are people for whom life is worth nothing. They are arrested, they are convicted and they are punished for the crime they have committed,” said the minister.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said he had mobilized “several hundred police and gendarmes.” The authorities used “all means” to “find these criminals” in the search for the suspects.
President Emmanuel Macron said the attack on the prisoner transport was “a shock for all of us.” The whole of France stands with the bereaved, the injured and their colleagues, Macron wrote on the online service X. “Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime,” the president added. They would be persecuted “relentlessly”.
