He was born in 1930 in Darnetal, a town near Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, and was ordained in 1958, according to information on the diocesan website. The attack happened between 09:45 AM and 11:00 AM.
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French authorities said the hostage-taking began at 9:25 a.m., when the attackers barged into morning Mass, taking six people, three nuns, a priest and a couple, hostage.
“They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic”. The two men then forced Rev. Jacques Hamel, the auxiliary priest to kneel, but when he refused to do what they wanted of him and attempted to defend himself and the people in the church, they used the knives to slit his throat.
Two attackers seized hostages Tuesday in a church near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing a priest by slitting his throat before being shot and killed by police, French officials said.
In Downing Street, Theresa May offered her “condolences to the French people following the sickening attack in Northern France” and that “our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected”.
It was not immediately clear if the assailants were killed or taken alive in the police operation that ended the assault.
“We tried to reason with him, but every time… he would reply with some verse from the Quran, he would invent things”, said the schoolmate identified as Redwan.
People light candles at the place de la Republique’s monument in Paris, on July 26, 2016 after a priest was killed in the Normandy city of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in the latest of a string of attacks against Western targets claimed by or blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group.
Another resident could not accept that the slaying was the work of IS, even after hearing French President Francois Hollande announce the news standing outside the Saint-Etienne town hall.
The ISIS-linked news agency Amaq said two of its “soldiers” had carried out the attack.
Former Ardoyne priest Fr Aidan Troy said the murder of Fr Hamel has left the country feeling “nervous and vulnerable”.
Police sources were quoted as saying that at least one of the two hostage-takers was bearded and was wearing a skullcap of the kind worn by some Muslims. Daesh is an alternate name for the Islamic State militant group.
Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who is also expected to run for the presidency in 10 months’ time, said both major parties had failed on security.
Meanwhile, a second hostage was in critical condition after an attack, the interior ministry said.
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“Horror. Everything is being done to trigger a war of religions”, tweeted Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a former conservative prime minister who now heads the Senate’s foreign affairs committee.
