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This is the first picture of a tragic six-year-old boy who was beheaded in front of his screaming mum .

Zakaria Al-Jaber was allegedly approached with his mum while they visited a shrine to the Prophet Muhammad in Medina, Saudi Arabia , and asked if they were Shia Muslims.

After the mum said yes, a taxi pulled up beside them and her son was snatched, reports say.

He was then beheaded with a "piece of glass" for being the "wrong branch of Islam ", it is claimed.

The mum collapsed out of trauma, it's reported.

(Image: @Sajid14hussain/Twitter)

A poignant photo of Zakaria has now emerged as campaigners react in fury to the news.

The campaign #JusticeforZakaria is growing on social media.

"Smallest coffins are the heaviest," wrote one Twitter user.

Another called the killing "barbaric".

The hashtag has already been shared widely online.

Others took to social media with heartrending tributes tonight.

(Image: @Sajid14hussain/Twitter)

Speaking of the gruesome moment of the attack, a source said: "The taxi driver then broke a glass bottle to obtain a shard of glass, which he then used to cut the throat of the child and stab him”.

Shia Rights Watch, a Washington DC-based campaign group, said: "There was no intervention from anyone and no response from authority thus far.

"The Saudi Shia community came together in mourning and to show solidarity with the parents.

"The community also reported this incident is a result of ongoing violations and lack of protection by the Saudi authority toward its Shia population.

(Image: Getty Images)

"Saudi Shia have been under military crackdown by their government and many Shia are in prisons and on death toll."

But Saudi Arabia's predominant branch of Islam is Sunni, accounting for around three quarters of the population.

Human rights groups say practitioners of other forms of the faith - including Shia - are persecuted.