Orthodox priest shot at church in France, motive unknown

1/11/2020 5:57

        A Greek Orthodox priest was shot while he was closing his church in the French city of Lyon, and authorities locked down part of the city to hunt for the assailant.
        
        The priest, a Greek citizen, is in a local hospital with life-threatening injuries after being shot twice in the abdomen.
        
        According to reports the attacker was alone and fired from a hunting rifle.
        
        Police cordoned off the largely residential neighborhood around the church, and detained one person who resembled descriptions of the gunman but was unarmed at the time of his arrest.
        
        The reason for the shooting was unclear. It happened two days after an Islamic extremist knife attack at a Catholic church in the French city of Nice that killed three people, and amid ongoing geopolitical tensions caricatures mocking the Muslim Prophet Muhammad published in satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.