French police kill naked knife-wielder self-harming in church

BORDEAUX: French police on Wednesday shot dead a stark naked man who entered a church in the city of Brive brandishing a knife with which he "seemed to be mutilating himself".

After leaving a vehicle he had stolen and harassing several passers-by, the man in his 40s entered the southwestern city's Collegiate Church of Saint Martin, Brive's public prosecutor Florence Leroux-Ghristi told the press.

When police arrived at the scene, the man was "ranting and raving, and seemed to be mutilating himself, slashing himself with his knife", the prosecutor said.

The officers first tried "to subdue and calm him, using electroshock weapons several times", Leroux-Ghristi added.

But after he "brandished his knife in their direction", the "officers then used their service weapons". He later died of his injuries, the prosecutor said.

His identity was "yet to be confirmed" and he had not made any remarks suggesting a religious motive, added Leroux-Ghristi.

An autopsy would be carried out on Friday to determine "precisely the circumstances of his death", she said.

Investigations had been opened into both the deceased man's crimes - vehicle theft and attempted murder - and whether the two to four police officers involved had committed voluntary manslaughter, she added.