Three elderly Italian nuns were raped and beaten before two were decapitated and another murdered in a convent in Burundi.
The bodies of Bernardetta Boggia, 79, Lucia Pulici, 75, and Olga Raschietti, 82, were found in their dormitory in Kamenge, north of the capital of Bujumbura.
Police said three suspects had been detained for questioning as they probe claims it was a botched robbery at the hands of a mentally unbalanced attacker.
Father Mario Pulicini, who is responsible for the parish in a northern suburb of Bujumbura, said Ms Pulici and Ms Raschietti were found 'partially decapitated' in their dormitory on Sunday. It appeared all three Italian nuns had been raped.
Ms Pulici had been celebrate her 76th birthday on Monday.
The third nun, Ms Boggia, found the pair and raised the alarm.
But early on Monday morning other missionaries heard suspicious noises and rushed to find Ms Boggia also dead in her room.
'Pope Francis has learned with great sadness of the murder of three nuns,' Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in a telegram sent on the pope's behalf.
The pope offered condolences in the 'tragic death' of the nuns to their families, the local parishioners and the sisters' order, the Xavarian Missionary Sisters of Mary.
The Catholic diocese in Parma, Italy, said on its website that the death of Pulici and Raschietti appeared to have been 'the tragic outcome of an armed robbery by a mentally unbalanced person'.
Ms Pulici and Ms Raschietti had served in Burundi for seven years, after working several years in the east of another central African state, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Thunder fire those rapist.
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