A priest has been killed in an attack by two armed men in his church in a suburb of Rouen in northern France.
The attackers entered the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during Mass, taking the priest, Fr Jacques Hamel, 84, and four other people hostage.
Police later surrounded the church and French TV said shots were fired. Both hostage-takers are now dead.
The Amaq news agency, linked to so-called Islamic State, said “two IS soldiers” had carried out the attack.
President Francois Hollande said the men had claimed to be from ISIS.
Speaking in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, he said the attackers had committed a “cowardly assassination” and France would fight ISIS “by all means”.
Pope Francis decried the “pain and horror of this absurd violence”.
The Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, who was attending a Catholic gathering in Poland, said: “I cry out to God with all men of goodwill. I would invite non-believers to join in the cry.
“The Catholic Church cannot take weapons other than those of prayer and brotherhood among men.”
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