Witnesses have described scenes of panic inside the church as people threw themselves under pews searching for cover, moving away from the windows.

Prayers and screams could be heard throughout the building as some tried to flee.

Khalid al-Mdanat was at the church and told BBC Arabic the attack lasted around 15 minutes with “people trying to flee while the shooting was still active”.

“People began pushing and throwing themselves to the ground,” he said.

“Some were taking cover, some were cradling the dead, others were holding their sons close, some were grabbing their children and fleeing, while others were holding onto their friends who were with them at the church.”

He said the gunmen left through the church doors and fled in a pickup truck “firing as they went”.

Another witness said: “I heard something as if a war had just started.

“I thought it was an electrical short circuit. I looked, people lying on the ground, wounded. The scene was catastrophic.”

A woman in the church said explosions rang out seconds after a prayer.

“The sound of machine guns started, and the sound of glass. We began to realise that something was happening.

“People started screaming.

The witness described how the situation “continued to escalate for 10 continuous minutes”. Once she ran out the church she said “bodies were all in the courtyards”.

Al-Faraya has described the incident as “painful and horrific” and “unparalleled in the history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”.