Three elderly Italian nuns have been raped and murdered in twin attacks in their convent in the capital of Burundi.
Police initially reported that two nuns were stabbed to death on Sunday afternoon. The killer then battered one of the two with a rock, before fleeing the convent.
Italian authorities named the first two killed as Olga Raschietti, 83, and Lucia Pulici, 75, both Roman Catholic nuns.
But in the early hours of Monday morning, another nun in the same convent was killed, her body beaten and head hacked off.
Colleagues named her as Bernadette Boggia, aged 79.
"After the discovery of the two nuns who were brutally killed... the decapitated body of the third nun was found," Deputy Director General of Police Godefroid Bizimana told AFP on Monday.
Pope Francis issued his condolences.
"The Holy Father begs the Lord to welcome into his kingdom of peace and light these three faithful and devout nuns," he said in a statement.
According to the diocese of Parma in Italy, they were killed during a botched burglary attempt.
But Burundi's police said the motive of the killing was not clear, pointing out that no money was taken.
Police spokesman Colonel Helmegilde Harimenshi said all three were raped.
Father Mario Pulcini, an Italian Catholic priest working in the same parish, said after the first two nuns were killed, Boggia had called him in the middle of the night reporting that she had heard a noise in the convent.
