Second victim "fighting for life" after police shoot dead two hostage-takers at church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
An 84-year-old priest has been killed after two knife-wielding men burst into a church in France's northern Normandy region, the interior ministry said.
The Paris-based AFP news agency, citing the ministry, said a second hostage was "fighting for life" after the incident in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on Tuesday.
Police told the Reuters news agency that the priest was "killed with a blade," adding that it looked like his throat had been slit.
"There were worshippers there; there were nuns; and they took those people hostage, including that priest who was killed. One of the nuns managed to escape, French radio reported, and it was that person who raised the alarm and called the police," Butler said.
"Special forces arrived shortly after and the hostage-takers were then killed when they tried to leave the church."
The motive for the killing was not yet clear, but the Paris prosecutor's office said the case had been handed to "anti-terrorism" judges for investigation.
French President Francois Hollande was on his way to Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, his office said.
The Vatican in a statement called the incident a "barbarous killing”, saying it was even more heinous because it happened in a sacred place.
The attack comes as France is on high alert after an attack in Nice that killed 84 people and a string of deadly attacks last year claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.
The country is in a state of emergency and boosted visible police presence in the wake of attack in Nice this month.
The security measures have been extended four times since assailants, who pledged allegiance to ISIL, struck Paris in November, killing 130 people at restaurants, a concert hall and the national stadium.
The Nice massacre has triggered a bitter political spat over alleged security failings, with the government accused of not doing enough to protect the population.
Prime Minster Manuel Valls had warned earlier in the week that the country would face more attacks as it struggles to handle fighters returning from wars in the Middle East.
France has been concerned about the threat against churches ever since a foiled plot against one in the Paris suburb of Villejuif in April last year.
Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a 24-year-old Algerian IT student, was arrested in Paris on suspicion of killing a woman who was found shot dead in the passenger seat of her car, and of planning an attack on a church.
Prosecutors said they found documents about al-Qaeda and ISIL at his home, and that he had been in touch with suspected fighters in Syria about the plan to attack a church.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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