A pair of attackers armed with knives slipped into a Roman Catholic church in northern France on Tuesday during morning Mass and killed an elderly priest by slitting his throat before being shot dead by police, French officials said.
The militant group Islamic State, through its affiliated Amaq news agency, claimed responsibility.
The attack, which authorities said left one other person gravely injured, was the latest and among the most shocking of a string of bloody episodes in France and Germany over the past two weeks.
French officials quickly called in terrorism investigators, and even before the claim of responsibility was reported, President Francois Hollande cast blame on Islamic State.
Hollande _ under heavy public criticism over perceived security lapses in connection with a July 14 truck rampage in the French Riviera city of Nice that killed 84 people _ swiftly headed for the scene of Tuesday's assault, in the Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, outside Rouen.
"We are facing a group, Islamic State, that has declared war against us," the French president told reporters. "It was not Catholics who were targeted; it was all the people of France."
The identity of the slain priest was confirmed by the archbishop of Rouen, who was visiting Poland at the time of the attack. The cleric was identified as the Rev. Jacques Hamel, 84.
"I cry out to God ... and I invite all non-believers to unite in this cry," Archbishop Dominique Lebrun said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. The Vatican also condemned the attack, labeling it "barbarous."
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Pierre-Henri Brandet, told journalists that a bomb squad and bomb-sniffing dogs had been dispatched to the scene, but there was no immediate indication that any explosives had been found. Several people inside the church were held hostage briefly during the attack, officials said.
The church assault came as France was still reeling from the Bastille Day strike in the southern city of Nice, in which a Tunisian-born deliveryman barreled along a seaside promenade, mowing down spectators who had just watched a fireworks display.
Authorities described the attacker as having been recently radicalized. Family members in Tunisia said he had a long history of violence and mental instability.
Of the Normandy attack, Islamic State's news agency said: "The perpetrators of the Normandy Church attack in France are two soldiers of Islamic State; they executed the operation in response to the calls to target the nations of the Crusader alliance."
The attack sent fresh shock waves across France, which is predominantly Roman Catholic. The church remains a revered institution, even though many French Catholics adhere only nominally to the church's stricter tenets.
