Armed man kills woman in French missionaries' home: source
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MONTFERRIER-SUR-LEZ, France - An armed man killed a woman with a knife after bursting into a home for retired missionaries in southern France on Thursday, sources close to the investigation said.
Armed police were hunting the man inside the home in the village of Montferrier-sur-Lez near Montpellier, which is home to around 70 men and women who have served as missionaries in Africa.
The man was wearing a mask and carrying a sawn-off shotgun and a knife, the sources said.
Fifty-nine of the residents were brought to safety, sources said, but others remained inside the home as police continued to search for the man.
Local authorities said it was a "criminal act" and the man's identity was unknown.
"A large number of security forces, firefighters and ambulance personnel are at the scene," the mayor of Montferrier-sur-Luz, Michel Fraysse, told AFP.
