The attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray came as France was still reeling from a massacre in the French Riviera city of Nice claimed by the Islamic State group. Terrorism investigators had been summoned, he said.
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Local Muslim leader, Mohammed Karabila, president of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie, said one of the attackers was known to French police and had travelled to Turkey. He spent almost a year in prison before being released in early March.
Mr Hollande said in the address that France was “waging war”, and urged the country to stay united and not turn against each other. “We must avoid one-upmanship, arguments, conflation, suspicions”, he said. “It is our unity that will give us strength”.
Two assailants slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest at a church in northern France on Tuesday in a hostage-taking drama that has shocked the country.
The imam of the mosque in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray said he was “appalled by the death of my friend”, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Police responded and later confirmed that the attackers had been “neutralized”, Sky News reported. Kermiche was under house arrest – for the second time – with a tracking bracelet when he carried out the deadly attack in Normandy with an unidentified minor who was born in 1999 in Algeria, the Paris prosecutor said. “We must fight to defend them, lest we be overtaken by waves of intolerance and hatred”, he said.
“They took to the floor to speak in Arabic…”
The Rev. Alexandre Joly, who knew the slain priest, said “If we are afraid, they have won”.
‘They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. She did not see his murder. “It was very quick”.
Police tried to negotiate with the terrorists through a small side door at the back of the church leading to the sacristy.
The priest was killed by the two hostages takers who were later shot dead by police units.
The church that was attacked was allegedly on a known ISIS “hit list” that has been found on a suspected ISIS extremist previous year. They headed for the police crying “Allah akhbar” and were shot down.
One person was detained for questioning in connection with the attack, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
Bomb squad officers aided by sniffer dogs scoured the church for any possible explosives.
It later emerged that the 19-year-old was being monitored by electronic tag and had twice attempted to flee France to join ISIS in Syria.
“The Catholic Church can take up no other weapons than prayer and fraternity between men”, he said in a statement. In Nigeria, ISIS affiliate Boko Haram killed more than 4,000 Christians previous year and attacked nearly 200 churches, according to figures compiled by a Nigerian Christian organization. “I have met with the family of the priest”.
On social media, the “je suis pretre” (‘I am priest’) hashtag began spreading. Pope Francis also expressed “pain and horror for this absurd violence”.
One of the Mass-goers was critically ill in hospital on Tuesday evening.
Hollande insisted the state must stick to the rule of law as a hallmark of democracy.
But just as in West Africa, where French finance and military might continue to shore up friendly governments, France has never fully withdrawn its influence, maintaining a far more hands-on role than the British do in their former empire.
Speaking in Downing Street, Mrs May said: “We all face a terror threat”.
Both the French president and interior minister went to the scene.
The attack drew statements of condemnation from across French society.
French President Francois Hollande traveled to the town.
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We are extremely distressed by news of this latest jihadist attack.
