France church attack: Priest killed by two 'IS soldiers'

    An 84-year-old priest was killed and four other people taken hostage by two armed men who stormed his church in a suburb of Rouen in northern France.            
The two attackers, who said they were from the so-called Islamic State (IS), slit Fr Jacques Hamel's throat during a morning Mass, officials say.

Police later surrounded the church, in St-Etienne-du-Rouvray, and shot dead both hostage-takers.
One of the hostages is in a critical condition in hospital.              

President Francois Hollande, visiting the scene, said the attackers had committed a "cowardly assassination" and France would fight IS "by all means".
Pope Francis decried the "pain and horror of this absurd violence".
UK Prime Minister Theresa May branded the attack "sickening" and offered her condolences to the people of France.
One attacker is reported to have been known to French police, and had tried to enter Syria last year.
Police special forces raided a house in Saint-Etienne-du-Rovray in the aftermath of the attack, and French prosecutors earlier said one person had been arrested.                                     
 The attack happened during morning Mass at the historic church, situated in a quiet square of St-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
 A nun, who identified herself as Sister Danielle, said she was in the church at the time.
"They forced [Fr Hamel] to his knees. He wanted to defend himself, and that's when the tragedy happened," she told French media.
"They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. It's a horror".
She said she managed to flee as they were preparing to kill him.
Elite police units, specialised in hostage-taking, surrounded the church.
President Hollande said the attackers claimed to be from the self-styled IS before they were killed by police as they came out of the church.
Three of the hostages were freed unharmed, but one remains in a critical condition, said French interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henri Brandet.        
 

'We will not be afraid': Adam Fleming reports from the scene

This quiet suburb, a few miles from the cathedral city of Rouen, is quieter than usual after this morning's horrific events. The heavily armed police have set up a large cordon around the church; a row of white tents - presumably for forensics officers - obscures the view. The nearby supermarket is closed and its car park is being used by journalists rather than shoppers.
Locals seem shocked, but not in a dramatic way. A man told me how he had conducted christenings, marriages and funerals for years alongside Father Hamel. He showed me a set of keys - keys for the church. "When I heard the news of his death, it was like being hit on the head from above. I just want to go to the church but I can't," he said.
A priest from a neighbouring parish, who also knew Fr Hamel, passed through on his way to conduct his own mass. His message tonight will be that this is not an attack on the Catholic Church - it is merely the latest symbol of French life to be targeted.
And the mood of some here was summed up by a woman cycling past the waiting media, who shouted to no-one in particular: "We will not be afraid."

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