Militants in the southern Philippines have beheaded a German man after a deadline to pay his ransom passed, the Philippine government has said.

A brief video circulated on Monday by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites, appears to show Jurgen Kantner being killed.

Shortly after the video appeared, the Philippine government envoy Jesus Dureza confirmed the German’s death.



“We grieve as we strongly condemn the barbaric beheading of yet another kidnap victim,” Dureza said in a statement. “Up to the last moment, many sectors including the armed forces of the Philippines exhausted all efforts to save his life. We all tried our best. But to no avail.”

Military officials in the south said they had not yet found Kantner’s body.

Militant group Abu Sayyaf had demanded a ransom of 30m pesos (£480,000) be paid by Sunday to spare the 70-year-old.

The group had previously released videos that showed a haggard Kantner appealing for payment of the ransom.

Kantner was abducted from his yacht, the Rockall, off the southern Philippines last year.

The vessel was found drifting on 7 November, with the body of his companion Sabine Merz with a gunshot wound.

The couple had been kidnapped and held for 52 days in Somalia in 2008 before they were freed, reportedly after a huge ransom was paid, press reports said.

Despite his ordeal in Somalia, Kantner said in 2009 he still intended to keep sailing into perilous waters.

“I know it’s dangerous sailing off into Somali waters and I have no private security guarding me, but I pray to God that pirates won’t get me again. It’s a little bit like suicide,” he said after being freed.

Abu Sayyaf, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, have been kidnapping foreigners and Christians for decades and holding them for ransom in the jungles of the southern Philippines.

The militants frequently kill hostages if their demands are not met, and last year murdered two Canadians.

Apart from Kantner they were now holding at least 19 foreigners and seven Filipinos hostage, military spokesman Brig Gen Restituto Padilla said.

The group, formed from seed money provided by a relative of the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, also carried out the bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay in 2004 that claimed 116 lives in the country’s deadliest terror attack.

The military had been pressing an assault against Abu Sayyaf, attacking its camps and bombing its hideouts just before Kantner was killed.