86-year-old priest Has been 'beheaded' by two ISIS knifemen who cut his throat after bursting into a French church and taking nuns and worshippers hostage before being shot dead by police.
Five people including the priest, two nuns and two parishioners were held by assailants who raided the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy at 9am.
The clergyman, named as Jacques Hamel, is believed to have been beheaded during the attack while another hostage is 'hovering between life and death' in hospital.
The two attackers have been 'neutralised' by elite marksmen in a dramatic police operation while the building is being searched for possible explosives. French president Francois Hollande said the men 'claimed to be from' ISIS.
There were reports the attackers shouted 'Daesh' – an alternative name for ISIS often used by the French government – as they ran into the church. At least one of the men was dressed in Islamic clothing, according to French media reports, and an anti-terrorist unit has already taken up the investigation.
It comes as it emerged that the place of worship was one of a number of Catholic churches on a terrorist 'hit list' found on a suspected ISIS extremist last April.
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