Church attackers claimed Islamic State link, France confirms

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday said the attackers at a northern France church, who slit the throat of an elderly priest, had “claimed to be from the Islamic State.”

Hollande’s comments were the first official confirmation that the deadly attack on a church in the northern French town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on Tuesday was a terror attack.

“We are faced with a group which has declared war,” said Hollande, after noting the attackers’ allegiance with the jihadist group.

Tuesday’s incident comes as France remains on high alert nearly two weeks after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel plowed a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.

The archbishop of the nearby city of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, had named the murdered priest as 84-year-old Jacques Hamel. The two attackers, who held people inside the church at knifepoint, were killed by police.

Five people were inside the church when it came under attack, interior ministry spokesman Pierre Henry Brandet said. Three of the hostages were freed unharmed, and another was fighting for their life.

Pope Francis on Tuesday condemned the “barbaric killing” of the elderly priest.

“The pope… shares the pain and horror of this absurd violence,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said, adding that the attack created “immense pain and worry.”

Francis issued “the most severe condemnation of all forms of hatred” and said he was appalled “because this horrific violence took place in a church, a sacred place” and involved the “barbaric” killing of a priest.

The motivations for the hostage-taking were not yet clear, but the Paris prosecutor’s office said the case was being handled by anti-terrorism prosecutors.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls expressed his horror at what he called “a barbaric attack on a church.”

“The whole of France and all Catholics are wounded. We will stand together,” he wrote on Twitter.

The archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, urged all non-believers to join those of the church in “calling to God.”

“The Catholic Church can take up no other weapons than prayer and fraternity between men,” he said in a statement.

French far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter that the “modus operandi obviously makes us fear a new attack from terrorist Islamists.”

The Nice attack was the third major strike on France in 18 months and was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Two attacks in Germany claimed by the Islamic State group since then have also increased jitters in Europe.

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

It was the fourth time the security measures have been extended since Islamic State jihadists struck Paris in November, killing 130 people at restaurants, a concert hall and the national stadium.