CHURCH ATTACK
Thirty gunmen storm church and shoot dead priest and at least five worshippers in Burkina Faso
Death squad unleashed a hail of bullets during Mass at a Catholic church in the town of Dablo
A THIRTY strong death squad stormed a Catholic church and slaughtered at least six people in Burkina Faso, security officials say.
The priest was among the victims killed during Sunday morning Mass in the town of Dablo in the north of the West African country.
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According to a security source, the massacre was carried out by a "group of some twenty to thirty armed men" at around 9am.
Ousmane Zongo, the mayor of Dablo, told AFP: "Armed individuals burst into the Catholic Church. They started firing as the congregation tried to flee.
"There is an atmosphere of panic in the town. People are holed up in their homes, nothing is going on.
"The shops and stores are closed. It's practically a ghost town."
The sick militants also set fire to nearby shops and a health care centre following the shooting, the BBC reports.
The government declared a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali in December because of deadly Islamist attacks by groups with links to ISIS and al Qaeda.
But violence has only worsened since.
Two French soldiers were killed in an operation to rescue four people taken hostage in Burkina Faso last week, France said.
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Roughly 60 per cent of Burkina Faso's population is Muslim, with up to a quarter Christian.
The two groups generally live in peace and frequently intermarry.
Then in late April unidentified gunmen killed a pastor and five congregants at a Protestant church, also in the north, suggesting the violence was taking a religious turn.
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