Police are searching for an armed man after finding a dead woman in a retirement home where 60 monks are living in southwestern France, sources close to the matter have said.

According to one source, a caretaker contacted the police after freeing herself after being bound and gagged by the suspect and escaping from the home in Montferrier-sur-Lez about 10km north of Montpellier.

On entering the building, police found the body of a woman who had been stabbed several times, the source said.

"One woman, a resident was assassinated. The security forcesh ave evacuated the residents, about 60, who are safe and sound," a local official told Reuters, adding that the search in the building was over.

The home houses retired missionaries that had worked in Africa as well as some nuns.

"Nothing at this stage would indicate that this would be a terrorist act," another source said.

He added that the suspect had fled before security forces arrived.

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 1 December at important and landmark sites in and around Paris, a source said earlier today.