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A former French paratrooper has been charged with murder after storming a retirement home for monks where he used to work and stabbing a care worker to death.

The 47-year-old father of two, who has not been named, was arrested close to the village of Montferrier-sur-Lez, north of Montpellier, where the crime was carried out on Thursday.

His victim, known only as Catherine, 54, died from three stab wounds after the attacker gagged and bound her at the Green Oaks care home, a home for Catholic missionaries.

Shots were heard as the intruder, who is himself believed to be a Catholic, attacked staff and members of an elderly religious community, some of whom were in their 90s and wheelchair bound.

Some had feared a terrorist attack, but local prosecutors confirmed that the arrested suspect had nothing to do with any extremist movements, and was instead a former employee of Green Oaks.

(Image: Getty)

He originally went on the run, but his morning a bar of military medals and a fake machine gun were found in a car parked up close to the retirement home.

A raid was carried out at the suspect’s council flat in Saint-Mathieu-de-Treviers, where his wife and sons helped with the enquiry to find him.

‘He’d left the army, and was pottering round doing odd jobs like mending bicycles while drawing unemployment benefit,’ said a source close to the case.

‘He knew the retirement home very well, having worked there as a carer in the past. He was arrested late on Friday afternoon, and gave himself up without a struggle.’

The husband of Catherine had warned that the care home was completely unguarded when the killer stuck.

The man, only identified as Georges, told RTL radio station that his wife worked night shifts as a care worker, from 8pm to 6.30am.

He explained: "The home was unprotected. Anyone at all could go inside. There was no protection, no alarm and no security guard."

He added that his wife was a woman of 'extraordinary kindness' who 'never had any kind of problem with anyone.'

He said: "How can you hurt someone like that? She is dead, and me, I'm left destroyed."

Gendarmes arrived within minutes of the alarm being raised on Thursday, and they were soon followed by units of the GIGN and Raid tactical support groups.

They soon found the corpse of Catherine, who had been tied up and then stabbed repeatedly with a knife.

"A supervisor inside the building had raised the alarm very discreetly after escaping," said a local police source, who confirmed that the siege ended soon after midnight.

Some 50 monks were ‘evacuated’ from the building after gendarmes searched all floors, and then gave the all clear.

The gunman, who was wearing a mask and dark clothing including a hoodie, was nowhere to be seen, however, and the manhunt started.

Montferrier-sur-Lez is surrounded by thick forests, so police helicopters and sniffer dogs were used in the search.

France is currently under a state of emergency following a series of terrorist attacks by Islamist terrorists over the past two years.

One of the most recent was in July when an 84-year-old Catholic priest was murdered during morning mass at the parish church in Saint Etienne-du-Rouvray, a suburb of Rouen.

The two attackers, who said they were representing Islamic State, slit Father Jacques Hamel's throat before themselves being shot dead by police.

Many churches, mosques and synagogues around France are now guarded 24 hours a day by police and army patrols, but the authorities have acknowledged that full security for every building in the country is an impossibility