Two attackers took hostages inside a French church during morning Mass on Tuesday near the city of Rouen, killing an year-old priest by slitting his throat before being shot and killed by police, French officials said. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. Another person inside the church in Normandy was seriously injured and is hovering between life and death, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said.
Police managed to rescue the only three other people inside the church in the small northwestern town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, he told reporters. A regional Muslim leader said one of the two attackers — who were killed outside the church — was known to police.
It was the first known attack inside a French church in recent times. A church was targeted last year, but the attack never was carried out. A statement published by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency said the attack was carried out by "two soldiers of the Islamic State" who acted in response to calls to target nations in the U.
The RAID special intervention force was searching for possible explosives in or around the church. There are still unknowns," Brandet said. It's a dramatic situation. Dominique Lebrun, the archbishop of Rouen, confirmed the death of year-old Rev.
Jacques Hamel. And I invite all non-believers to unite with this cry," Lebrun wrote in a statement from Krakow, Poland, where Pope Francis was expected. French President Francois Hollande, arriving on the scene, called it a "vile terrorist attack" and said it's one more sign that France is at war with the Islamic State, which has claimed a string of attacks on France. He expressed solidarity with local Catholics, saying "they have been terribly hit by the killing of the parish priest by two terrorists claiming to belong to Daesh.
