2 Attackers Claiming Allegiance to ISIS Shot Dead After Killing Priest in French Church

Two attackers stormed a church in France on Tuesday, killing an elderly priest during morning mass and taking four hostages. They were later shot and killed by police, French officials said. According to French president Francois Hollande, the attackers “claimed to be from ISIS.”

Altogether, the Guardian reports, there were five people inside the church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, in Normandy, when the attack occurred: the priest; two nuns; and two worshippers.

The priest was identified by the Archbishop of Rouen as Father Jacques Hamel. His throat appeared to have been slit, Reuters reports, in what the Vatican condemned as a “barbarous killing.”

One hostage has been hospitalized in critical condition; the other three hostages were freed unharmed.

France is still in a state of emergency, which was extended another six months after the attack in Nice—the third major attack on France in 18 months claimed by the Islamic State.

Update – 8:35 am According to the SITE Intel Group, semi-official ISIS news agency Amaq is reporting that “two soldiers of the Islamic state” perpetrated the attack in Normandy on Tuesday.