PARIS: Two attackers slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest and critically injured at least one other person early Tuesday in a church near the Normandy city of Rouen before being shot and killed by police, a French security official said.
The priest, identified as Jacques Hamel, was dead at the scene, and another person, possibly a nun, was clinging to life, Interior Ministry spokes man Pierre-Henry Brandet said.
There were no immediate details on the identity or motives of the two assailants but the investigation was handed to the anti-terrorist unit of the Paris prosecutor's office. A police source said it appeared that the priest had had his throat slit.
"At one point, the two assailants came out of the church and that's when they were killed by the BRI elite force," Interior Ministry spokes man Pierre-Henry Brandet told France Info radio, referring to France's specialised police group.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls branded the attack "barbaric" and said it was ablow to all Catholics and the whole of France.The knife men launched their assault by taking five people hostage inside the church in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, south of Rouen.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brandet confirmed one of the hostages had been killed and said another was critical.French President Francois Hollande was on his way to the site of the attack.
"Horror. Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions," tweeted Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate's foreign affairs committee.
Add Comments
