Posted on 11/24/2016 4:11:46 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
Gendarmes stand guard on a road near a retirement home for monks in Montferrier-sur-Lez, southern France, early on November 25, 2016, after an armed man burst in the home killing a woman with a knife. Armed police were hunting the man inside the home, which is home to around 70 men and women who have served as missionaries in Africa. Authorities said it was a "criminal act".(Photo credit PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/Getty Images)
Two people are believed to be dead and around 70 were held hostage at a retirement home for Catholic Monks in Montpellier in the South of France.
According to local news sources, armed police scrambled to the Maison de Retraite des Missions Africaines on Thursday night.
“An individual, who was masked and armed with a knife and a sawn-off shotgun came into the retirement home where 70 monks live,” a source told Agence France Presse.
Police have not yet made a statement on a believed motive, but the attack comes just months after Islamic State supporters murdered a priest in Rouen.
The gunman is believed to have been wearing a hood, entering the home at around 9:45pm local time.
“A supervisor inside the building raised the alarm very discreetly,” the Mail reports a local police source as having commented.
The country is still on a high state of alert for terrorism, with the U.S. government warning that terrorists may seize upon the Christmas period and specifically Christmas markets to attack European nations.
UPDATE — 18:43 EST
Local reports suggest that at least 59 of the monks have now been freed with police storming the building. The attacker is believed to still be at large.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Montferrier is 20 miles from the town of Lunel, where police suspect a jihadi network may be based.A third of the 25,000 inhabitants are Muslim, and the town hit the headlines in 2014 when it emerged that around 20 young Muslims from Lunel had left to join Isil in Syria.
This is the "sea" I was referring to, at #1.
Was anyone named Muhammad near by at the time?
It’s one thing to treat others around the world with humanitarian intentions.
It’s another to commit societal suicide.
Let Merkel (German, I know) > (and her fellow travelers around Europe) stand at the border welcoming the Islamic people in with open arms.
The problem will take care of itself in days.
My guess is the Amish have moved overseas. /S (Really not needed)
Police have not yet made a statement on a believed motive,...
French monks have been the target of Islamist terrorists in Algeria...their story became the film “Of Gods and Men”.
St. Katherine the Great Martyr, intercede for us!
Brilliant movie.
Wake up, France. How many good people have to die before you wake up to evil?!
We have the “Of Gods and Men” DVD. Impressive, these monks, deep strong men, men in the sense of mensches, the most admirable.
Servant of God Charles de Foucauld, pray for us.
It was either a Trump supporter or a crazed Anglican ... possibly both.
MSM: ...but where was Mr. Trump during all of this ???? Can we, for sure, say it wasn’t him???
I’d rather appeal to St. Genevieve and St. Michael. ...a good defense and a good offensive should take care of the intruders.
The attack has occurred on the Feast of St. Catherine.
But an appeal to Sts. Michael, George the Trophy Bearer, Demetrios the Myhrr-streaming, Theodore the General, and other soldier-saints is always in order as well!
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