Chopped Off Canadian Head Found Killed By Islamist Militants

Mr Ridsdel, from Calgary Alberta, was kidnapped in September last year alongside Canadian national Robert Hall, as well as a Norwegian man and a Filipina woman.

They were all taken from an upscale resort on the southern Samal Island.

The four had appeared in a video appealing to their families and governments to aide their release.  Abu Sayyaf, a small but notoriously brutal militant group, is holding a number of other foreign hostages including one from the Netherlands, one from Japan, four Malaysians and fourteen Indonesian tugboat crew.

The Islamist militants in the Philippines have killed hostage John Ridsdel, the Canadian government has confirmed.

The Philippine army said a severed head was found on a remote Philippine island on Monday, five hours after the expiry of a ransom deadline.

The army would not immediately comment on whether the head was that of Mr Ridsdel, but his death was later confirmed by Canadian government officials.

In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the killing, describing it as an act of "cold-blooded murder".

He said the Canadian government will work with the government of the Philippines to pursue those responsible for this "heinous act".

Mr Ridsdel, a former mining executive, was one of four hostages being held by militants from the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group. 

The group had threatened to behead one of the four if a 300m peso ransom (£4.42m) for each of them was not paid by 3pm local time on Monday.