At least 15 people including a priest have reportedly been killed and scores more wounded in an attack on a church in the Central African Republic capital of Bangui.
Gunmen stormed the Notre-Dame de Fatima church – located in a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood – during Mass on Tuesday, firing guns and using grenades.
Moses Aliou, a priest at the church, told Reuters that “filled with panic, some Christians began to flee until bullets and grenades began to fall in the parish grounds, trapping those who remained in the compound.”
It is the second time the church has been the subject of such an incident – the BBC reported that more than a dozen people died in another armed attack at the church in 2014.
The CAR has endured years of conflict after Muslim rebels seized power in the majority Christian country in 2013 and what are described as “mostly Christian militias” launched counter attacks.