An Indian Catholic priest was crucified by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) on Good Friday in Yemen, it has been claimed.

A Dubai-based prayer group with close ties to the missionary home in Aden where Father Tom Uzhunnallil was abducted earlier this month reported the priest’s death on its Arabic website.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, referred to the claims in his Easter Sunday homily.

Asked about the reports on Austrian television news later on Sunday evening, the archbishop replied: "We hope that it's not so, but we have to fear that it's true”.

The Corpus Christi Dubai report appears to lend weight to earlier warnings that Isil were planning to crucify Father Uzhunnallil on Good Friday, in a grotesque imitation of the fate Christians believe Jesus Christ befell on the same day.

Fr Uzhunnallil, 56, was kidnapped on March 4 by gunmen from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, the Aden missionary home where he had been working as a chaplain.

Sixteen people were killed in the raid.

Sister Sally, the order’s mother superior who survived the attack, claimed the gunmen were from Isil, and a neighbour reportedly witnessed militants driving away with Fr Uzhunnallil in a car.