Jordan Hunts Three Gunmen After Deadly Attack on Church in Karak

Security forces in Jordan are searching for three gunmen who attacked a church in Karak governorate on Friday, killing eight people and wounding dozens more, according to the country's Ministry of Health. Authorities have described the assault as an act of terror, a rare event at a Christian place of worship in the kingdom.

King Abdullah II offered condolences to the families of the victims and said those responsible would face the "harshest penalties". He also ordered a review of Jordan's security procedures for responding to terrorist attacks.

The shooting took place on Friday afternoon during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud. Survivors said they heard an explosion shortly after the service began. Two attackers arrived in a vehicle and were joined by a third man carrying a semi-automatic rifle. They went into the church and fired for several minutes.

Nasser al-Burqan, a lawyer who survived, told Reuters that one attacker stood about two metres away and fired a handgun at him. His son, who was also in the church, later phoned to say he had been shot in the leg and was being treated in hospital. Tarek Ammarin, who was visiting an injured relative, called the attack "a massacre in every sense of the word".

Jordan's Petra news agency reported on Saturday that seven people died at the scene and an eighth, a woman, died of her injuries hours later. Of the 40 people wounded, 27 remain in hospital. The director of Prince Ali Military Hospital in Karak said one patient is in critical condition after surgery.

The attackers have not been identified, and government statements call them "unknown assailants". Security camera footage circulating online and broadcast by the state channel Al-Mamlaka shows three people shooting outside the church and running toward its entrance, and also firing on a group of men outside who were trying to flee. Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh blamed a group of "extremists" but named no organization. Prime Minister Jafar Hassan called the attack a product of terrorist ideology and "blind extremism". The motive remains unclear.

Karak governorate lies about 120km south of Amman and is home to many of Jordan's roughly 300,000 Christians, in a country of 11.5 million people. Taylor Luck, senior Middle East correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor, told Al Jazeera that Jordan's Christians take pride in interfaith solidarity and coexistence. He said Christians and Muslims have lived side by side in Karak for generations, and that if the attack was meant to divide them, the community is more likely to emerge stronger.

Condemnations have come from several countries, including Azerbaijan, Iraq, Poland, Palestine and Qatar. Ahmed al-Tayeb, grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, called it a "heinous terrorist attack", and the United States embassy in Jordan offered condolences to victims and survivors. The prime minister declared three days of mourning, with flags at half-mast over government and public buildings.

Attacks of this kind are uncommon in Jordan, though Karak has seen violence before. In 2016, the ISIL (ISIS) group carried out a series of attacks across the area, including a siege on a Crusader-era castle that killed 10 people, among them a Canadian tourist and seven police officers. Four attackers were later killed by Jordanian security forces after a long standoff.