Africa – More than 50 people were brutally murdered in an attack on a Nigerian Catholic church on Sunday.
Graphic video of the bloody aftermath of the massacre was posted to social media.
Gunmen, armed with explosives and firearms, opened fire on worshippers at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State on Sunday morning.
The terrorists also took the priest hostage and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
No terror group has claimed responsibility for the massacre as of Sunday evening.
Ondo state governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu called the attack “vile and satanic.”
The Guardian reported:
Gunmen launched an assault on a Catholic church in Ondo state in Nigeria during mass on Sunday, killing more than 50 people in a “satanic attack”, local officials and volunteers said.
The attackers targeted the St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the town of Owo as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, according to local officials. They gunned down parishioners and detonated an explosive device, local media reported.
Doctors, local officials and volunteers helping the injured said the death toll was at least 50, with dozens being treated for injuries in overwhelmed local hospitals.
Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole, state legislator, said children were among the dead. Videos appearing to be from the scene of the attack showed church worshippers lying in pools of blood while people around them wailed.