
An ISIS suicide bomber today attacked a Catholic priest with an axe as he tried to blow up hundreds of worshippers at a church during Sunday Mass.

Priest Albert Pandiangan, 60, was holding the holy ceremony at the altar when the 18-year-old fanatic rushed towards him with a backpack bomb and tried to blow himself up.

But the bomb burned without setting off the explosives, so the jihadi pulled an axe from his bag and slashed the priest's arm at St Yoseph Church in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra in Indonesia.

An ISIS suicide bomber (pictured with police) today attacked a Catholic priest with an axe as he tried to blow up hundreds of worshippers at a church during Sunday Mass

Hundreds of people could have been killed if the bomb had gone off inside the church in Indonesia but the device failed and members of the congregation wrestled the axe from his grasp

Priest Albert Pandiangan was slashed on the arm while taking the holy ceremony on the Indonesian island if Sumatra

The congregation detained the suspected terrorist and a bomb disposal squad later arrived as he had tried to set off a homemade explosive device at the church

The congregation then stepped in and managed to wrestle the axe from his grasp, detaining him until the police arrived.

As officers marched the suspect to the car, pictures show his white trousers soaked in blood. Police found his ID card and a hand-drawn picture of the ISIS flag.

The young fanatic also told police that he was not working alone.

He was later pictured at the police station with an officer holding his bloody head off the ground, where he was lying handcuffed.

'Somebody tried to kill the priest by pretending to attend the church service and at that time tried to explode something, like a firecracker, but the firecracker didn't explode, it only fumed,' chief detective Nur Fallah said.

The priest suffered slight injuries and has been taken to hospital near where it happened.

A picture of the attacker's ID card circulating online said he was Muslim.

In recent years there have been a number of attacks on religious minorities and others in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

Indonesian police (pictured arrived in numbers in what is yet another attack on ethnic minorities in the country, which is majority Muslim

Officers continued to guard the church after the incident earlier today, which sent shockwaves through the small Christian community that exists on the island

The suspect had blood-soaked trousers and was seen being marched out of the church by people who appeared to be members of the public today

A huge crowd of people gathered as an unconscious woman was seen being carried away from the scene (pictured)

Huge numbers of police and officials could be seen at the church earlier, where a bomb disposal team arrived earlier to make it safe

Despite the attack, a number of people continued to gather by the church today, which was under heavy guard this afternoon

A suicide attack in the Indonesian capital in January killed four attackers and four civilians, including a Westerner, and injured 19.

In July a suicide bomber linked to the Islamic State group blew himself up outside a police station in Central Java.

Churchgoers on Sunday quickly caught the attacker and called the police.

An eyewitness, Markus Harianto Manullan, said the assailant wore a jacket and carried a bag.

'He sat in the same row as I did... I saw him fiddling with something in his jacket, and then I heard a small explosion and he immediately ran to the podium,' Manullan said.