The slain priest was identified as the Rev. Jacque Hamel.
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TWO knifemen who had pledged allegiance to Isis forced two nuns to watch as they filmed themselves slitting the throat of a French priest while they performed “a sort of sermon”, it has emerged.
A police official said one of the attackers had been turned back after trying to go to Syria.
The Islamic State says that the church attack in France was carried out by two “soldiers” from the group.
A source close to the investigation said one of the attackers had been charged with terror links and held before being freed on bail. However he was released by a judge in March and put under house arrest. He did not flag new measures to address the threat, but emphasised the existing ones would be applied to their fullest.
“This war will be a long one”, he said. “Our country must avoid overreaction, polemics, confusion and suspicion…”
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”.
She said the attackers recorded themselves.
One eyewitness said: “The area around the church was sealed off, and then armed officers appeared with their weapons”.
“They took to the floor to speak in Arabic… And that’s when the tragedy happened”, said the woman, identified as Sister Danielle, speaking on BFM television.
“I set off running and I stopped the first auto I saw”. They headed for the police crying “Allah akhbar” and were shot down.
The RAID special intervention force carried out a search for possible explosives in or around the church. None were found. They found the body of the priest, who died of wounds to his chest and throat. He had to wear an electronic tag, surrender his passport and was only allowed to leave his parents home for a few hours a day. The Paris prosecutor appealed against this decision to release him but it was confirmed by an appeal court.
The incident comes as France is under high alert after an attack in Nice that killed 84 people and a string of deadly attacks a year ago claimed by the Islamic State group.
A nun who escaped the attack said the assailants forced the priest to kneel before filming the murder. Three other people were injured, one very seriously. “I have met with the family of the priest”.
Some Catholics are already calling for Hamel to be considered for the sainthood. Roberto Maroni, president of the Lombard region, said Fr Hamel was a “martyr of faith”.
President Francois Hollande has condemned the attack as a “cowardly assassination” and vowed that France would fight ISIS “by all means”.
“The fact that this episode took place in a church, killing a priest, a minister of the Lord and involving the faithful, is something that affects us profoundly”, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.
France is still reeling from the Bastille Day attack in Nice earlier this month, when a lorry was driven into celebrating crowds by Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, killing more than 80 people. “Terrorists will not give up on anything until we stop them”.
The Paris anti-terror prosecutor has taken over the investigation into the attack, France’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The attack drew statements of condemnation from across French society. He was arrested in Turkey and served time in France for terrorist offences.
Right-wing politician Marine Le Pen Tweeted the modus operandi led her to “obviously fear another attack by Islamist terrorists”.
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Following the attack in France, and previous attacks in Germany, security concerns were raised for the Catholic celebration that runs through Sunday. “We will stand together”, he wrote on Twitter.
