Police in France are searching for an armed man after finding a dead woman in a retirement home where 60 monks are living in the southwestern part of the country, sources close to the matter told Reuters on Thursday night.
According to one source, a caretaker contacted the police after escaping from the home in Montferrier-sur-Lez about 10 kilometers north of Montpellier.
Upon entering the building, police found the body of an elderly woman who had been stabbed several times, the source told Reuters.
"Nothing at this stage would indicate that this would be a terrorist act," another source stressed.
"An individual, who was masked and armed with a knife and a sawn-off shotgun came into the retirement home where 70 missionaries live," a source told the AFP news agency, adding the attacker’s motives were unknown.
Police have brought the residents to safety but are still searching for an armed individual, a local official said.
France has been under a state of emergency since a wave of Islamist attacks last year. These include the Paris attack in November of 2015 and the truck attack in Nice on Bastille Day this past July.
In another attack, two terrorists attacked a church in Normandy, murdering a priest.
In addition, France has foiled several attacks. In September, police caught three women who planned an attack in Paris and were guided by the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
Also in September, a car containing gas tanks was located on a Shabbat morning in close proximity to a synagogue in Marseille.