China executed Akmal Shaikh, the Briton convicted of drug-smuggling, early today, provoking expressions of despair from his family and an immediate condemnation from Gordon Brown.

Mr Shaikh, 53, a former taxi service manager from Kentish Town in London, had been sentenced to death, but Mr Brown, the man’s family and the British charity Reprieve had appealed repeatedly for mercy for a man believed to be mentally ill.

The execution of Mr Shaikh was the first in China of a citizen of a European nation for half a century, Reprieve said.

Mr Shaikh was executed at 10.30 this morning (0230 GMT), the British Government announced.

The Chinese authorities had yet to confirm the sentence had been carried out or how, but some state-run media reported that Mr Shaikh had been put to death.

Increasing numbers of executions in China are carried out by lethal injection rather than by firing squad and that is the method usually employed in such high-profile cases. A reporter who tried to reach the Xishan Detention Centre where Mr Shaikh had been incarcerated was stopped by police but was told all executions in the western city of Urumqi were carried out by lethal injection.

The family of Mr Shaikh, a father of three, issued a statement in London saying: “The family express their grief at the Chinese decision to refuse mercy.”

After news of the execution came through his two cousins, who had visited him in prison, added: "We are deeply saddened, stunned and disappointed at the news of the execution of our beloved cousin, Akmal. This was carried out this morning despite repeated requests for clemency and a proper appraisal of Akmal’s mental state.

"We are astonished at suggestions that Akmal himself should have provided evidence of his own fragile state of mind. We find it ludicrous that any mentally ill person should be expected to provide this, especially when this was apparently bipolar disorder, in which we understand the sufferer has a distorted view of the world, including his own condition.

"That this was regarded as sufficient grounds for refusal by the judicial authorities to order any mental health assessment is shocking to us.

"Despite our own and other pleas, the Chinese authorities have maintained their refusal to investigate Akmal’s mental health."

Mr Shaikh received the visit from his cousins, Soohail Shaikh and Nasir Shaikh, on the last day of his life. They broke to him that he was to be executed in 24 hours. The brothers had travelled to China to make one last-ditch appeal to spare Mr Shaikh.