Man Bursts Into French Retirement Home For Monks, Kills Elderly Woman With Knife

MONTFERRIER-SUR-LEZ, France (CBSNewYork/AP) -- French police were searching early Friday local time for a masked gunman, after he stabbed an elderly woman to death in a retirement home for monks.

An unusually large police operation was launched to search for the suspected attacker, believed to be armed with a shotgun and a knife. The identity of the assailant and motive for the killing were unclear.

The press service for the national gendarme, or military police, couldn't say whether the incident was linked to a terrorist act.

A gendarme service spokesman said early Friday that more than 100 members of the security forces were dispatched to the village of Montferrier-sur-Lez, near the city of Montpellier in the southern tip of France, after being alerted by a guard at the monks' residence. The spokesman was not authorized to be publicly named.

The body of the woman was found gagged and tied up outside the building and with three stab wounds, the spokesman said. The circumstances of the killing are under investigation.

The security forces searched the residence as well as basements and side buildings, but did not find the assailant. The spokesman said the 59 monks in the facility are out of danger, and the search is continuing in a larger perimeter with help from a helicopter and police dogs.

France has been under a state of emergency for a year since ISIS attacks on Paris killed 130 people. Security has been increased at religious sites, notably after an Islamic State attack on a Catholic church in Normandy in July in which two attackers slit a priest's throat and held elderly parishioners hostage.

(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)