The killing of a nun in Mozambique has raised concerns that the Islamic State-linked insurgency is now taking hold in a new province -- Nampula.

Islamic State-linked insurgents killed an Italian nun in an attack on her mission station in Chipene village, in Nampula province, northern Mozambique on Tuesday night, a security source said.

Sister Maria de Coppi of the Comboni Missionary Sisters had been in Mozambique since 1963. Two other nuns, one Italian and one Spanish, and two priests managed to escape, with locals.

The insurgents, believed to be from the extremist Islamist group Ahlu-Sunna Waljama'a (ASWJ), raided the mission at about 9pm on Tuesday, killed De Coppi (83), and torched the mission's church, the nuns' homes, the hospital and its equipment.

There are also unconfirmed reports that two other people were killed in the attack and that other infrastructure in the area was destroyed.

The source said mission authorities were trying to get the survivors evacuated from the area with the help of the Italian Foreign Ministry's crisis unit. The two Comboni nuns were reported to have fled into the forest with a group of girls who had also been at the mission.

Another Catholic body, the Centro...