Police in southern France were looking Thursday for an armed man who killed a woman at a retirement home for missionaries.
The man was wearing a mask and carrying a sawed-off shotgun when he burst into the home in Montferrier-sur-Lez, near Montpellier, which is home to around 70 men and women who have served as missionaries in Africa.
News reports said about 60 residents were brought out to safety as police continued to search for the suspect.
There were no indications that this was an act of terrorism.
France is on heightened alert and has been under a state of emergency since a wave of Islamist attacks last year.
Suspects arrested last weekend in France under anti-terrorism measures had been planning to launch attacks on December 1 at important and landmark sites in and around Paris, officials said.
