Montpellier attack: Care worker stabbed to death at French retirement home for monks

Gendarmes stand guard on a road near a retirement home for monks where a woman was killed
AFP
Peter Allen25 November 2016

The husband of a care worker stabbed to death at a religious retirement home today claimed the building was completely unguarded despite France being under a state of emergency.

Anti-terror police were leading a manhunt around the village of Montferrier-sur-Lez, near Montpellier after an intruder brandishing a shotgun and knife struck at the Green Oaks retirement home for missionaries who have worked in Africa.

An unidentified woman was bound, gagged and then stabbed to death last night before the killer fled, leaving some 50 elderly monks and other staff members to be rescued by police.

Today the husband of the dead woman said: “The home was unprotected” adding: “Anyone at all could go inside. There was no protection, no alarm, and no security guard.”

More than 100 members of the security forces were sent to the village of Montferrier-sur-Lez near Montpellier

The husband – identified only as Georges– told RTL radio station that his wife worked night shifts as a care worker, from 8pm until 6.30am.

He said she was a woman of “extraordinary kindness” who “never had any kind of problem with anyone.”

“How can you hurt someone like that?” said George. “She is dead, and me, I’m left destroyed,” he said.

A caretaker raised the alarm soon after 9.30pm having freed herself after being bound and gagged by the suspect and escaping from the building.

Elite police units and more than 100 gendarmes arrived at the scene to take part in an operation to hunt for the escaped man.

He was initially believed to be still inside the building with hostages, but everyone was soon accounted for.

Montferrier-sur-Lez is surrounded by thick forests, and today police helicopters could be seen flying above them.

Search parties including sniffer dogs were also searching the surrounding countryside in a hunt for the killer

Search parties including sniffer dogs were also searching the surrounding countryside.

Christophe Barret, the Montpellier prosecutor, said: “All occupants of the retirement home are safe and sound. For the time being, there is only one victim. For the moment there is no particular evidence about the motive for this crime. Nothing is pointing towards the motive.”

Mr Barret said there was no evidence of any religious or political slogans being shouted out, or any other evidence of terrorist motivations.

Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, secretary general of the French Bishops’ Conference, said: “Our prayers go to the woman who lost her life in this attack on a retirement home.”

France is currently under a state of emergency following a series of terrorist attacks by Islamist terrorists over the past two years.

One of the most recent was in July when an 84-year-old Catholic priest was murdered during morning mass at the parish church in Saint Etienne-du-Rouvray, a suburb of Rouen.

The two attackers, who said they were representing Islamic State, slit Father Jacques Hamel’s throat before themselves being shot dead by police.

Many churches, mosques and synagogues around France are now guarded 24 hours a day by police and army patrols, but the authorities have acknowledged that full security for every building in the country is an impossibility.

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