Two armed men have killed a priest and adopted four other persons when they stormed a church in a suburb of Rouen in northern France.
Officials say the attackers, who claimed to be members of the Islamic State (IS) slit 84-year-old Father Jacques Hamel’s throat during a morning Mass.
BBC says Police surrounded the church and shot dead both abductors while one of the captives is in a critical condition in the hospital.
Visiting the scene, President Francois Hollande vowed that France would fight IS by all means.
He said that the attackers had committed a “cowardly assassination”.
Pope Francis criticised the “pain and horror of this absurd violence” while UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, described the attack as “sickening” and offered her sympathies to the people of France.
