Orthodox priest injured in French shooting, assailant has fled: police source – Update, it looks like a personal dispute.

PARIS (Reuters) – An orthodox priest has been injured in a shooting in the French city of Lyon and the assailant,armed with a sawn-off shotgun. has fled, a police source said on Saturday.

The priest was fired on twice at around 4pm local time as he was closing the Greek Orthodox church, and was being treated on site for life-threatening injuries, the source said.

The assailant is thought to be at large after fleeing the scene on Rue Saint-Lazare in 7th arrondissement of the city, a police source said on Saturday. 

A nasty weapon I usually associate with the more old time English Post Office robber. Not bound to be a jihadist attack of course, the Avignon incident wasn’t, but the likelihood is high.

Update – a man had been arrested in a kebab shop; he isn’t necessarily the man in the long black coat and hat police sought immediately after the shooting. According to The Times the police are not treating it as terrorism. And

The priest, Father Nikolaos Kakavelakis who is employed by the Greek education and religious affairs, had been involved in a conflict with a former orthodox monk, Jean-Michel Dhimoila, who had accused him online of financial impropriety and sexual harassment, French media reported.

Father Nikolaos denies the claims and brought a libel suit in 2018 against Mr Dhimoila who was ordered to pay him damages.

Father Antoine Callot, also a Greek orthodox priest in Lyons, said there had been a conflict at Father Nikolaos’ church since his arrival in 2007. “There were police interventions after they were called by Father Nikolaos, at least once if not several times. There were fights in the church,” he said.

It is understandable why everybody is so tense.