A woman has been killed after an armed man burst into a retirement home for monks near Montpellier in France.
The victim had contacted police before she was killed with a knife, according to Reuters.
The man who broke into the home is reportedly armed with a knife and a sawn-off shotgun and is holed up in the Maison de Petraite retirement home in Montferrier-sur-Lez.
The facility is home to around 70 men and women who have served as missionaries in Africa.
Some 16 monks have been taken to safety by armed police, Le Parisien reports.
According to Le Figaro, police found the warden of the home bound and gagged and there have been reports that a man has died, but this has not been confirmed.