An elderly priest had his throat slit in a church in northern France on Tuesday (July 26th) after two men stormed the building and took hostages.
The two men arrived at the 17th century Eglise Saint-Etienne church in Normandy during morning mass, storming the building and taking five hostages inside.
During the siege they killed a retired priest in his 80s by slitting his throat and seriously injured another captive.
As the two attackers tried to leave the church, they were confronted by a French police unit and shot dead.
Three of the hostages were freed unharmed.
The “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) said Tuesday that the two assailants were its "soldiers," an ISIL-linked news agency reported.
The attack came as France was still coming to terms with the massacre in the French Riviera city of Nice claimed by ISIL.
French President Francois Hollande vowed Tuesday to wage war against ISIL ”by every means" within the law.
