Source: BBC

French religious leaders have called for more security at places of worship following the murder of an elderly priest in Normandy on Tuesday.

Representatives of Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist faiths spoke after meeting President Hollande.

Father Jacques Hamel was killed while conducting morning mass in his church.

One of the two men who attacked him was wearing an electronic surveillance tag, which was temporarily turned off under his probation conditions.

The killing came 12 days after the attack in Nice in which 84 people died.

Muslim leader Dalil Boubakeur, rector of Paris’s Grand Mosque, said the leaders “deeply desire that our places of worship are the subject of greater [security] focus, a sustained focus”, as even “the most humble place of worship” can be subject to an attack.

Tuesday’s attack took place in an ordinary Catholic church in a suburb of Rouen.

Mr Boubakeur expressed “profound sorrow” on behalf of French Muslims at the attack, which he described as a “blasphemous sacrilege”.

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