ISLAMIC STATE (Isis) fanatics beheaded an elderly Syrian antiquities scholar in the ancient town of Palmyra before hanging his body from a Roman column, news agency Sana reported yesterday.

The killing of 81-year-old Khaled al-Asaad was the latest atrocity perpetrated by the terrorist group, which captured Palmyra in May.

Sana said leading academic Mr Asaad was beheaded on Tuesday in a square outside the town’s museum.

A local man said that Isis brought the scholar to the square in a van, having arrested him three weeks before.

An Isis guerilla read out five alleged charges against Mr Asaad, including that he was the “director of idols,” had represented Syria “at infidel conferences” and visited Iran.

While most ancient artefacts were evacuated to the capital Damascus before the fall of the town, there have been fears that the philistine Isis would destroy the Roman ruins there.