Nun:Parishoners Pleaded, "Please Don't Kill Our Priest"

Churchgoers pleaded with attackers not to kill priest, nun tells CNN affiliate

Tuesday , in Normandy, northern France, two Islamic State terrorists killed 86-year-old priest Jacques Hamel (born 1930 in Darnétal) of the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, during Mass. Two nuns and two churchgoers were taken hostage. The attackers were shot and killed by Rouen's BRI police after they left the church.

A Priest was killed after two men take hostages in Catholic church in Normandy, France

(CNN)A deadly hostage-taking at a Catholic church in Normandy, in which a priest was killed and another person seriously wounded, was a terror attack committed in the name of ISIS, French President Francois Hollande has said.

Speaking to journalists in the northern French town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where two men took five people hostage during morning Mass Tuesday, Hollande said the attack was a "cowardly assassination" carried out by "by two terrorists in the name of Daesh" -- another name for ISIS.

Police said the priest's throat had been slit.

A second hostage remains critically injured. French President François Hollande travelled to the scene, claiming the attackers acted in support of the ISIL terrorist group. The Telegraph reports that the attackers shouted "Daesh" before slitting the priest's throat.

The Islamic State says that the church attack in France was carried out by two "soldiers" from the group. Another person has been detained following the attacks.

The incident is being investigated by anti-terrorism judges.

French news channel BFM TV report that one of the attackers who lived in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray had, in 2015, attempted to travel to Syria but had been turned away by the authorities at the Turkish border and, as a result, spent time in a French jail and was released in March 2016. Upon his release, he was electronically tagged and a curfew was placed on him meaning he could only leave his house.