Published July 26 Updated July 26 Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Still in shock from the Bastille Day terror attack on a crowded Riviera seafront, France witnessed horror in another corner of the country on Tuesday: a Catholic church in a quiet town in Normandy, where two suspected Islamist assailants slit the throat of an year-old priest. The men, armed with knives, stormed into the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a few kilometres south of central Rouen, shortly before 10am during morning mass.
They took five people hostage, including Father Jacques Hamel. After about an hour, the attackers emerged from the building and the police shot both of them dead. Apart from Fr Hamel, three of the four other hostages — two nuns and two churchgoers — were wounded, according to local church authorities.
One is in a critical condition. One of the assailants was known to authorities after attempting to go to Syria twice last year, according to the Paris prosecutor. Identified as Adel Kermiche, 19, he had been released in March under judiciary control and wore an electronic bracelet. Kermiche had to wear a security tag but this was deactivated for a few hours every morning.
This period corresponded with the time of the attack. France is still reeling from the atrocity in Nice, where an attacker driving a lorry killed 84 people celebrating Bastille Day. With more than 5, EU citizens estimated to have links with Islamist groups, the wave of attacks may only be starting, according to Hugo Micheron, a Sciences Po researcher who specialises in French Jihadism.
In Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, neighbours gathered on street corners to try to gain a better view while others turned up to express sympathy and support for the victims. Among them, Fatima, dressed in a long black tunic and wearing a black headscarf, said that she had come along to stand in solidarity.
