Nun: French church attackers forced the priest to kneel before killing him and filmed the encounter

Police and rescue workers stand at the scene after two assailants had taken five people hostage in the church at Saint-Etienne-du -Rouvray near Rouen in Normandy, France, July 26, 2016.

REUTERS/Steve Bonet

PARIS (Reuters) - The two attackers in a French church on Tuesday forced an elderly priest to kneel before killing him and also filmed the murder, a nun who escaped the scene said on French radio.

The nun was one of several people taken hostage by the knifemen during a morning mass at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near the northern city of Rouen.

"They forced him to kneel and he tried to defend himself and that is how the drama started," the nun who gave her name as Sister Danielle told RMC radio, adding that she fled at the moment that one of the attackers killed the priest.

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