A masked gunman opened fire on a well-known, elderly Dutch priest in the central Syrian city of Homs on Monday, April 7, killing him instantly, a fellow priest and an activist group said, according to the Associated Press.

The slaying of 72-year-old Father Francis Van Der Lugt underscores fears by many in Syria's Christian and Muslim minorities for the fate of their community should Syrian President Bashar Assad be overthrown by rebels in the country's civil war.

Van Der Lugt was gunned down inside a monastery in the city's Bustan al-Diwan neighborhood, a rebel-held area that has been blockaded by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad for the past year. His death was reported by Homs-based priest Assad Nayyef, and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The motives for the attack were not known and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the killing.

During the three-year civil war, Van Der Lugt repeatedly refused to leave Bustan al-Diwan, despite a series of UN evacuations this year that helped hundreds to leave blockaded Homs areas and despite dozens of rebels handing themselves over to the Syrian security forces.

But the elderly priest, who had been living in Syria since 1964, raised widespread attention to the suffering of civilians in blockaded Homs.