New Photos Released Of Chapel Destroyed By Heavy Metal 'Satanists'

New photos (slideshow) have been released of the fire-ravaged 16th-century Chapel of the Cross at Loqueffret near the remote tip of Brittany (France),which was destroyed in a blaze this past weekend. The doors of the chapel were forced open, and several original polychrome statues were destroyed. A shadowy anti-religious group with links to heavy metal music has claimed responsibility for burning down the chapel, as well as a series of attacks on other Christian sites in Brittany in northwest France, according to Expatica.

Members of the group, which calls itself "True Armorik Black Metal", or TABM, describe themselves as "extremist and anti-ecclesiastical" in a letter sent to local newspaper the Telegramme, which published excerpts on Thursday.

"We are going to strike again, again and again," warned the letter, in which the group's acronym is scrawled in blood-red letters over the image of an inverted Christian cross.

Police, who are hunting a group of Satanists they believe responsible for the attacks, said they were taking the letter seriously and had sent it for analysis by a specialised unit.

Graffiti of the letters ABM was found at nine Christian sites desecrated in recent weeks. Police previously believed the letters signified Aryan Black Metal, a Satanist movement which has links to heavy metal music, paganism and far-right politics.

Eight other Christian shrines — six roadside granite crosses and two fountains — were torn down or smashed last month in an area of the Finistere department near the popular holiday resorts of Benodet and Concarneau.