Six dead in church attack in Burkina Faso

A pastor and five congregants have been killed in an attack on a church by unidentified gunmen in northern Burkina Faso.

Unidentified gunmen have killed a pastor and five congregants in an attack on a Protestant church in northern Burkina Faso, government spokesman Remy Fulgance Dandjinou says.

Burkina Faso has been beset by rising Islamist violence this year, but Sunday's attack was the first of its kind on a church in the religiously tolerant West African country, Dandjinou told Reuters.