China confirmed the death of Chinese hostage Fan Jinghui, who had been held by the Islamic State (IS), saying the criminals must be brought to justice.

Expressing condolences for Fan's death and deep sympathies to his family, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said, "the Chinese government strongly condemns the atrocity against humanity and the criminals must be brought to justice."

Earlier in September, the IS said it had captured a Chinese hostage and a Norwegian hostage, who were identified by the IS's English-language magazine Dabiq as Fan from China and Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad from Norway.

The Chinese government went all out to rescue the hostage after learning of the kidnapping. The IS, however, ignored basic human morality and brutally killed Fan, Hong said.

Calling terrorism a common challenge faced by mankind, Hong said the Chinese government firmly opposes terrorism in all forms and combats terrorist violence and crimes that challenge civilization.

"China will continue to enhance anti-terrorism cooperation with the international community and maintain world peace and tranquility," he said.