Armed attackers killed a priest and five worshippers during mass on Sunday in an attack on a Catholic church in northern Burkina Faso.

The attackers – numbering between 20 and 30 – managed to trap some of the people inside then set fire to the church in the town of Dablo, about 200km from the capital Ouagadougou.

Several shops were also torched before they headed to the local health centre, which they looted and then torched the chief nurse’s vehicle.

“Towards 9am, during mass, armed individuals burst into the Catholic church,” said Ousmane Zongo, the mayor of Dablo. “They started firing as the congregation tried to flee.”

“They killed five of them. The priest, who was celebrating mass, was also killed, bringing the number of dead to six.”

Urbain Kabore, a government spokesman for the West African country’s Sahel region, said the attackers also destroyed all places serving alcohol.

“People are holed up in their homes, nothing is going on. The shops and stores are closed. It’s practically a ghost town,” he said.