Family friend Jonathan Sacarabany says Kermiche grew up in a housing project in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
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He had retired aged 75 but helped out when necessary – and was reportedly standing in for the regular priest, Father Auguste Moanda-Phuati, when two men wielding knives burst into the church at 9.43am French time on Tuesday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office, which oversees investigations involving terrorism, said one person had been detained in relation to the attack, though no details were given regarding identity or location.
The attackers were about to leave the church when some French police entered and shot them dead, a French police source told Reuters. “This dastardly attack will only strengthen our resolve to defeat the enemy of Islamist terrorism”.
The priest who died has been identified as Rev. Jacque Hamel.
The Vatican called the situation an act of “absurd violence” and said that Pope Francis strongly condemned “every form of hate” and “prayed” for the victims affected.
The two attackers stormed the church during morning mass, taking the five people inside hostage, including the priest, said Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre Henry Brandet.
So what do we know about the two attackers? The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific terrorist attack today at a Catholic church in Normandy, France. Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer sciences student, was arrested by French police who are investigating whether he was directed to carry out attacks on churches by Islamic State.
It added the attack, in the small northwestern town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, was in response to its calls to target countries of the US-led coalition which is fighting Islamic State.
A local Muslim leader said one of the men who attacked the church was on French police radar and had travelled to Turkey.
The attackers were “terrorists who claimed allegiance to ISIS”, French President Francois Hollande said earlier Tuesday.
A nun who escaped the attack said the assailants forced the priest to kneel before filming the murder. The same source said the church was one of a number of Catholic places of worship on a hit list discovered on an ISIS suspect in April 2015.
In France, the Normandy attack comes 12 days after a 31-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel plowed his heavy goods truck into a crowd of revelers in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people.
“He never spoke to us”, said the neighbour.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls branded the attack, which came with France on edge after the Bastille Day massacre which left 84 people dead in Nice, as “barbaric”.
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Security was also increased past year at Jewish sites in Britain after the attacks against Charlie Hebdo and a Kosher supermarket in Paris.
