An elderly woman has died after an armed man burst into a retirement home for monks near Montpellier in southern France.
The victim was stabbed and found bound and gagged outside the home, a spokesperson for the French Gendarmerie said.
The man who broke into the Chenes Verts retirement home in Montferrier-sur-Lez was reportedly armed with a knife and a sawn-off shotgun.
He fled the home and has remains at large.
More than 100 police officers were dispatched to the facility, which is home to around 70 men and women who have served as missionaries in Africa.
Authorities have described the incident as a “criminal act”.
Montferrier-sur-Luz Mayor Michel Fraysse said: “A large number of security forces, firefighters and ambulance personnel are at the scene.”
