2 men hold up parishioners at early-morning Mass in Florida.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2004 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Brittany Wallman

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ City police promised beefed up protection for religious services during the holidays after two masked thieves burst into a Catholic Church just before Monday's morning Mass, assaulting two parishioners and stealing their wallets as others ran for the doors.

Eleven churchgoers were in the sanctuary at Saint Anthony Catholic Church for the 6:30 a.m. Mass. when the two men, at least one of them armed with a black semi-automatic handgun, walked down the center aisle demanding wallets and purses and ordering people to be quiet.

One victim, Sherry Saunders, nervously smoking a cigarette after the ordeal, struggled to find the words to describe the attack, shaking her head and blinking and finally saying, "It was surreal."

"They chased me up the aisle," Saunders said outside the church and school, just north of Virginia Shuman...

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