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A female resident at the retirement home for monks and nuns, in the village of Montferrier-sur-Lez, near Montpellier in rural southwest France, was stabbed to death on Thursday night.

A caretaker was reportedly bound and gagged – but managed to free themselves and raised the alarm.

Armed police have raided the building – but found the body of the elderly woman, who had been stabbed several times.

The gunman is still at large.

Around 150 metres from the care home, a fake machine gun and a set of military medals were found in an abandoned car on Friday morning.

"It is clearly of huge significance to the investigation," a police source said.

(Image: EPA)

The gunman was thought to be holed up in the home, in the region of Herault, holding up to 60 residents hostage.

A special unit of armed police has raided the building – and all the residents are now safe.

Unconfirmed reports suggested a man had also been killed – but no further details on this have emerged.

The gunman's motives are unclear – athough French police are saying it is "criminal act" rather than terrorism.

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An official said: "One woman, a resident was assassinated.

"The security forces have evacuated the residents, about 60, who are safe and sound.

"The (security forces) are still working to find the suspect."

(Image: EPA) (Image: GOOGLE)

At least 15 police cars are on the scene.

Both city police and gendarmerie – armed French police – are involved.

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

A police source told local media: "one individual, hooded and armed with a knife and a sawn-off shotgun, broke into the retirement home.

"His motives were unknown at this time."

Another source said: "Nothing at this stage would indicate that this would be a terrorist act."

(Image: REUTERS)

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, a source said earlier on Thursday.