Two attackers invaded a church Tuesday during morning Mass near the Normandy city of Rouen, killing an 84-year-old priest by slitting his throat and taking hostages before being shot and killed by police, French officials said.
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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group claimed the attack later on Tuesday via the group’s affiliated Amaq News Agency.
“We are facing a group that has declared war on us”, French President François Hollande said after rushing to Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray.
French police “neutralised” two men armed with blades who had taken several people hostage in a church in northern France on Tuesday, the police said.
He said the church was surrounded by France’s anti-gang brigade the BRI, which specialises in kidnappings, and that “the two assailants came out and were killed by police”. According to the New York Times, this latest incident happened at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray when a Mass was underway.
He said his nephew had become “serene” before the attack.
Reports that one of the attackers was on the French government’s terror watchlist is likely to raise questions about the effectiveness of the security services, which have been placed under growing scrutiny following recent terror attacks.
The slaying of Father Hamel also raised questions about the vulnerability of places of worship because the church where the attack took place had been identified as a potential Isil target.
Mohammed Karabila, regional Muslim leader, denounced the Rouvray attack as an “odious act” and said th one of the attackers had been known to police.
According to French authorities, the suspect, Sid Ahmed Ghlam, was sent by the Belgian Abdelhamid Abaaoud to attack a church in Villejuif, just outside of Paris.
The Islamic State said its “soldiers” slaughtered the elderly priest and critically injured a worshipper.
In light of the attack, French President Francois Hollande pledged to fight the Islamic State terror group “using all means possible”.
He said, “The whole of France and all Catholics are wounded”.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Pierre-Henri Brandet, told journalists that a bomb squad and bomb-sniffing dogs had been dispatched to the scene, but there was no immediate indication that any explosives had been found. The Vatican has condemned the barbaric killing of the priest in the attack.
France had remained on high alert under an extended state of emergency since a truck driven by a Tunisian resident killed 84 revellers along the promenade of France’s southern Mediterranean city of Nice on 14 July, Bastille Day.
They attempted to storm the church, but the assailants used three hostages as a “curtain” in front of the door, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
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The Islamic State’s Amaq news agency made the claim of the militants’ involvement, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a US -based organization that monitors extremist online activity. There had been at least plans of one church attack in 2015.
