SAINT-ETIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY (FRANCE), JULY 26: Two assailants slit the throat of an 84-year-old priest at a church in northern France today in a hostage-taking drama that has shocked the country.
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.
Five people were inside the church when it came under attack, interior ministry spokesman Pierre Henry Brandet 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".
The priest died after having his throat slit, sources close to the investigation told AFP. The archbishop of the nearby city of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, named him as 84-year-old Jacques Hamel.
Three of the hostages were freed unharmed, and another was fighting for their life, said Brandet.
Pope Francis voiced his "pain and horror" at the "barbaric killing" of the priest.
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.
An AFP journalist said the scene of the attack was crawling with emergency vehicles and police.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls expressed his horror at what he called "a barbaric attack on a church".
"The whole of France and all Catholics are wounded. We will stand together," he wrote on Twitter.
Lebrun urged all non-believers to join those of the church in "calling to God".
