In a ghastly attack, two assailants slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest at a church in northern France on Tuesday in a hostage-taking drama that has shocked the country
In a ghastly attack, two assailants slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest at a church in northern France on Tuesday in a hostage-taking drama that has shocked the country.
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A French police officer stands guard by Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray's city hall following a hostage-taking at a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, northern France. Pic/AFP
The archbishop of the nearby city of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, named him as 84-year-old Jacques Hamel.
The attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray came as France was still reeling from a massacre in the French Riviera city of Nice claimed by the Islamic State group.
French President Francois Hollande condemned the "cowardly murder of the parish priest by two terrorists claiming to be from Daesh", using an Arabic term for the Islamic State group. Hollande appealed for 'unity' in France, where political blame trading has poisoned the aftermath of the truck attack, the third major strike in the country in 18 months. "The threat remains very high," said Hollande.
The motivations for the hostage-taking were not yet clear, but the Paris prosecutor's office said the case was being handled by anti-terrorism prosecutors.
France remains on high alert nearly two weeks after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.
President Francois Hollande, who is from Rouen, and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve were on their way to the scene, their offices said.
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