At least two prison officers were killed in northern France on Tuesday after armed assailants ambushed a convoy at a road tollbooth and freed an inmate, the French authorities said.

Éric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister, said on the social media platform X that three other prison officers had been seriously injured in the episode, which occurred near Incarville, a town in the Eure area northwest of Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron said the attack was a “shock to us all.”

“The Nation stands by the families, the injured and their colleagues,” he said on X.

Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said on X that “hundreds” of police officers had been deployed to apprehend the escaped inmate and the assailants who had freed them.

“Everything possible is being done to find these criminals,” Mr. Darmanin said.

Alexandre Rassaërt, the president of the local Eure council, said in a statement that he was “chilled with horror to learn of the carnage that took place.”

“I sincerely hope that the commando of killers who perpetrated this bloody attack will be swiftly arrested,” he said.