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Gunmen kill six in Catholic church in Burkina Faso Burkina Faso church attack: Priest among six killed
(32 minutes later)
Gunmen have burned down a church during mass and killed six people, including a priest, in Burkina Faso, officials say. Gunmen have killed six people including a priest as Mass was being celebrated in a church in Dablo in northern Burkina Faso, officials said.
The morning attack happened in the northern town of Dablo, security sources and local official said. The attackers, said to number between 20 and 30, then burned down the church.
"Armed individuals burst into the Catholic church...They started firing as the congregation tried to flee," the mayor of Dablo, Ousmane Zongo, told news agency AFP. The town's mayor, Ousmane Zongo, described panic in the town as other buildings were burnt and a health centre looted.
It is the third attack on churches in Burkina Faso in the past five weeks. Jihadist violence has flared in Burkina Faso since 2016, and this is the third attack on a church in five weeks.
A priest was among those killed in the attack which happened at 09.00 local time [10:00 GMT), Mayor Zongo said. Fighters affiliated to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group as well as the local Ansarul Islam have been active in the region.
The militants also set fire to a nearby shops and a health centre, a government official told the BBC. "Armed individuals burst into the Catholic church... They started firing as the congregation tried to flee," the mayor of Dablo, Mr Zongo told the AFP news agency.
"There is an atmosphere of panic in the town. People are holed up in their homes, nothing is going on. The shops and stores are closed. It's practically a ghost town," he said.
Security sources told AFP that reinforcements were being sent from Barsalogho, some 45km (30 miles) to the south.
Last month, attackers targeted a Protestant church in the town of Silgadji, killing at least six people
And earlier in April, four people died when a Catholic church was attacked in a nearby village, the bishop of Dori in northern Burkina Faso told Vatican news agency Fides.