Armed men kill 86-year-old priest in France church attack
A priest was killed, Tuesday morning, when two men attacked a church in northern France.
The men, who took several hostages, also critically injured another person.
Rev Fr Jacques Hamel was the auxiliary priest at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
The attackers entered the church during Mass, taking the priest and four other people hostage.
French TV reports say both attackers have been shot dead by the police.
President Francois Hollande said the men claimed to be from so-called Islamic State (IS).
Hollande who spoke in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray said the attackers had committed a “cowardly assassination” and France would fight IS “by all means”.
Pope Francis decried the “pain and horror of this absurd violence”.
French interior ministry spokesman, Pierre-Henri Brandet, said one of the hostages had been critically wounded.
He said the hostage-takers had been “neutralised” after coming out of the church. Police were now searching the church for explosives.
This is the latest of a string of terror attacks on Europe in recent times..
