Security was stepped up at malls, foreign embassies and other locations across Jordan, the US embassy in Amman said on Saturday, as authorities searched for gunmen who killed nine people and wounded 40 in a church attack.
The assailants fired for several minutes in broad daylight during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Karak governorate on Friday, in what Jordanian authorities described as an act of extremist terrorism. No one immediately claimed responsibility.
Two people wounded in Friday's attack died of their injuries, bringing the number of people killed to nine, health minister Ibrahim al-Bdour told AFP on Saturday.
"The number of victims who died in the terrorist attack on the church in the village of Al-Hamoud in Karak has risen to nine following the death on Saturday of a second casualty who had been in a critical condition," the minister said.
Another 25 people remain hospitalised, he added.
Such attacks are rare in Jordan, although authorities in the US-allied kingdom say they have repeatedly foiled plots by militants in recent years.
Bahjat al-Rushda, mayor of Shihan village in Karak, joined a long list of officials condemning what he called a "wicked" attack.
"God willing, this country will remain secure," he said.
Authorities said they were still searching for the attackers, adding it was too early to determine whether they had links to known groups inside or outside Jordan.
"A massacre, a massacre in every sense of the word," said Tarek Ammarin at a hospital where the wounded were being treated. A relative of Ammarin's was injured in the attack.
Reuters video footage showed police patrolling outside the Hamoud church on Saturday, about 120 km (75 miles) southwest of the capital, Amman.
"This is a result of a terrorist ideology and blind extremism and we will not allow society to go down this path," Prime Minister Jafar Hassan said in a post on X.
Jordan's King Abdullah, a US partner in the fight against militant Islamist groups, visited Karak hours after the attack and said the perpetrators would be punished "with an iron fist".
Christians make up a minority of Jordan's population. The country is home to several biblical sites that attract Christian pilgrims from around the world.
Jordan has been among the US allies in the Middle East to be hit by Iranian attacks this year after the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February.