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, DailyMail informs.

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.

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.

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.