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Islamic State Group Claims Responsibility for Normandy Church Attack
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A police car blocks an underpass leading to the scene of a hostage situation in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, France, on July 26, 2016. Photo by EPA
Islamic State group said a Catholic church attack in Normandy, France was carried out by its ‘soldiers’, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing a statement from the news agency of the organisation.
French President Francois Hollande has confirmed that the attack, in which two men took five people hostage in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during morning mass Tuesday, was a ‘cowardly assasination’ committed in the name of Daesh, an Arabic name for the Islamic State group.
An 84-year-old French Catholic priest saying mass was slain and three other people were wounded in the hostage drama.
The two assailants were killed in a police operation to end the attack.
Their identities remain unclear, according to a French Interior Ministry spokesman.
A Vatican spokesman defined the attack as a “terrible news, which unfortunately adds to a series of violent acts” creating “immense pain and worry.”
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