Gunmen burst into a church in northern Burkina Faso on Sunday and shot dead four people, a security source said. This is the fourth attack on Christians in the past month.

Other worshippers were wounded in the assault on the morning service at the church in the town of Toulfe, according to a security source. 

"The Christian community of Toulfe was the target of a terrorist attack which gathered for Sunday prayers. The attack left four of the faithful dead," the Bishop of Ouahigouya, Justin Kientega, said in a statement

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks which threaten to upend traditionally peaceful relations between the Muslim majority and Christians who make up a quarter of Burkinabes.

Burkina Faso's population is around two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian.

Islamist militants based in Mali have regrouped after a French intervention in 2013 and now use the country's north and center as launchpads for attacks on neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

In late April, gunmen killed a Protestant pastor and five congregants in northern Burkina. A Catholic priest and five parishioners were killed in an attack in the central town of Dablo on May 12 and another four Catholics died in an attack two days later in the northern town of Ouahigouya.

(With inputs from agencies) 

(Cover: A Burkina Faso gendarme stands guard outside the Splendid hotel following a jihadist attack in Ouagadougou, January 16, 2016. /AFP Photo)