French President François Hollande has said the attackers have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, reports the Wall Street Journal.
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A policeman reacts as he secures a position in front of the city hall after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du -Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016.
He added that the “Catholic church can not take up any other weapons but prayer and brotherhood among men” and called on the faithful “to lower their arms before violence and to become an apostle of a civilization of love”. “Terrorists will not give up on anything until we stop them”. The attackers had allegedly slit the old priest’s throat during the course of the hostage-taking.
The Vatican condemned the attack, calling it “terrible news” on the back of a string of recent violent attacks in Europe.
President Francois Hollande and Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, are scheduled to visit the scene of the church attack later during the day.
Mohammed Karabila, head of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie, said French security services knew the name of one of the attackers.
Le Figaro also reported that the church targeted in Tuesday’s attack was one of several Catholic sites on the hit-list of a 24-year-old Algerian student.
Pope Francis called the attacks “barbarous”, according to the Vatican on Twitter. The area has been cordoned off and police have been telling people to stay away.
“I cry out to God with all men of good will. I would invite non-believers to join in the cry”, local Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen, who is returning from World Youth Day said.
France’s European Union commissioner Pierre Moscovici said he was “revolted” and voiced “solidarity with the church and all Catholics”. Islamic State also claimed that the men belonged to their group.
“We are put to the test yet again”, Hollande said, according to Reuters.
After the attack in Nice, France extended a state of emergency giving authorities extra powers to carry out searches and place suspects under house arrest for six additional months until January.
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Britain’s Guardian newspaper quoted Brandet as saying that the church was surrounded by the BRI, France’s “anti-gang brigade”, which specializes in kidnappings, and that “the two assailants came out and were killed by police”.
