2016 Normandy church attack at Saint Etienne du Rouvray

On 26 July 2016, two Islamist terrorists Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean attacked a Catholic church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, northern France, during Mass. Wielding knives and wearing fake explosive belts, the men took five people hostage and killed the 85-year-old priest, Jacques Hamel, by slitting his throat and critically wounded another hostage. The terrorists were shot dead by BRI police as they tried to leave the church. The attackers had pledged allegiance to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

At about 9:45 am on 26 July 2016, two men wielding knives and a handgun stormed the 16th-century church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray as Mass was being held. Hamel, two nuns, and two parishioners were taken hostage and made to sit together in a group. One attacker wore a fake explosive belt and the other wore a backpack made to look like it carried a bomb.

A hostage said the attackers filmed themselves and "did a sort of sermon" at the altar in Arabic.

On the recording, which was later found by police, the attackers also shouted "you Christians are eliminating us".

The attackers forced Hamel to kneel at the foot of the altar and then slit his throat while screaming "Allahu akbar".

Hamel had tried to resist. Another hostage, an 86-year old parishioner, was made to photograph or film the priest after he had been killed. The attackers then knifed him also, leaving him critically wounded. The other three hostages were largely unhurt.

After the killing, the two men seemed pleased and talked with the nuns about the Koran. One also warned "as long as there are bombs on Syria, we will continue our attacks".

When Hamel was attacked, a nun ran outside without the perpetrators noticing. She stopped a passing motorist, who alerted the police.

Police quickly arrived at the church. They tried to negotiate with the two men through a small window opening on to the sacristy. Armed police then tried to enter the church and end the siege, but the attackers had lined the hostages up in front of the door, as human shields.

At about 10:45 am, the hostages fled the church, followed by the two attackers. One wielding a handgun, they charged at police shouting "Allahu akbar" and were shot dead by officers from Rouen's Research and Intervention Brigade. One report suggested the men had fired as they left the church and that an officer was shot in the leg, but others reported that the gun did not work.

Police raided a house in the suburb after the attack and arrested one person. The incident is being investigated by anti-terrorism judges.

Within hours of the attack, the ISIL-linked Amaq News Agency said that the attack was carried out by two "soldiers" from the group, in response to ISIL's general call to attack countries of the coalition fighting it.

On 27 July, Amaq published a video of the two perpetrators pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.