(English) Priest killed in ISIL-linked attack on church in France.

Second victim “fighting for life” after police shoot dead two ISIL-linked hostage-takers at church in Normandy.

An 84-year-old priest has been killed with a knife, and another person seriously wounded, after two men with alleged links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took several people hostage in an attack on a church in northern France.

Father Jacques Hamel reportedly had his throat slit on Tuesday before French police entered and shot dead the attackers, a French police source told the Reuters news agency.

The Paris-based AFP news agency, citing the ministry, said a second hostage was “fighting for life” after the incident in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, but indicated that the other three hostages had made it out unharmed.

Later on Tuesday, French prosecutor Francois Molins identified one of the attackers as 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, who was reportedly under surveillance after having tried to travel to Syria twice.

He was under house arrest and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of the attack.

Speaking outside the church, French President Francois Hollande called it a “dreadful terrorist attack” and told reporters the assailants had pledged allegiance to ISIL, also known as ISIS.

The ISIL-linked Amaq website said two of its “soldiers” had carried out the attack.

“We are put to the test yet again,” Hollande said. “The threat remains very high.”

In a separate televised national address on Tuesday evening, Hollande declared “our country is at war…this war will be long”.