Assailants take hostages in Normandy church in France

“They forced him to his knees and he tried to defend himself and that’s when the drama began”, Sister Danielle, who escaped as the attackers slayed the priest, told RMC radio.

“The perpetrators of the Normandy church attack are soldiers of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls to target countries of the Crusader coalition”, the IS-linked Amaq news agency said.

The attack in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray came as France was still reeling from a massacre in the French Riviera city of Nice claimed by the Islamic State group.

France is now on high alert after the July 14 truck attack in Nice that left 84 people dead.

A statement published by the Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency said the attack was carried out by “two soldiers of the Islamic State” who acted in response to calls to target nations in the USA -led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria.

The man was sent back to France past year, where he was charged and jailed for associating with criminals with terror links.

“This attack joins a lengthening string of jihadist attacks around the world”, he said, “and it should steel our collective resolve to defeat ISIS overseas before they attack us at home and put an end to this madness”.

The French prosecutor also confirmed that the men shouted “Allah Akbar”, “God is great”, as they left the church.

After Nice, France extended a state of emergency giving police extra powers to carry out searches and place people under house arrest for another six months until January.

Are you in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray?

“All people feel affected so we must have cohesion”.

Manuel Valls, French Prime Minister said on Twitter that he was “horrified at the barbaric attack”.

The attack has prompted calls for national unity, not to allow the latest string of Islamist-motivated attacks to divide the French people.

The town’s mayor, Hubert Wulfranc, in tears, denounced the “barbarism” and, breaking down, pleaded, “Let us together be the last to cry”.

Following the terror attack in the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray church in France, President Reuven Rivlin reiterated his call for worldwide unity in the face of the threat of terrorism and religious hatred. Hollande said the terrorists will stop at nothing, adding, “We must rage war against Daesh (ISIS)”.

French President Francois Hollande, arriving at the scene of the crime, struck a more combative tone.

“We must be merciless”, Sarkozy said in a statement to reporters.

“The whole of France and all Catholics are wounded”.

Eyewitnesses told Le Figaro the attackers were armed with knives, one was bearded and one said to wear a chachia, a traditional woollen north African hat.

Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar condemned the Normandy murder, saying: “Evil attacks the weak”.

The archbishop of Krakow, Stanislaw Dziwisz, asked participants to pray for “all the victims of recent terror attacks and especially for the priest who was killed today”.

According to the media reports, one of the attackers tried to go to Syria via Turkey in 2015 but was detained and extradited to France, where he was put in prison.