A composite photo showing the Norwegian hostage Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad from Oslo (left) and the Chinese hostage Fan Jinghui (right) held by the Islamic State (ISIS). (Photo : www.china.com.cn)
The Chinese government is verifying information regarding the reported abduction of a Chinese national by Islamic State (ISIS) militants, the Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.
China firmly opposes any violence against innocent civilians, ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a news briefing.
ISIS claimed on Wednesday that its militants have captured a Chinese and a Norwegian national, according to its official online English magazine, Dabiq.
The radical group named the Chinese man as Fan Jinghui, a freelance consultant based in Beijing, and the Norwegian as Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad from Oslo.
The magazine also posted mugshots of the two captives from several angles, showing them wearing a yellow outfit with the words underneath the pictures that read "Chinese prisoner for sale" and "Norwegian prisoner for sale," respectively.
The magazine gave no details of the capture, but offered a phone number for contact with the captors for paying ransom.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg confirmed on Wednesday that a Norwegian citizen has been taken hostage in Syria and that the country has refused to pay any ransom.
The Norwegian government was made aware of a possible abduction of one of its citizens in Syria in late January and a crisis team headed by the country's Foreign Ministry has been working on it for some time, said Solberg.
"So far as we know he must have been kidnapped inside Syria in late January. He has since been held by different groups, but there is reason to believe that he is now held by IS," she added.
