Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said his government was trying to ascertain details of the Indian victims.
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No terror group immediately claimed credit for the slaughter.
Agenzia Fides, an information service for Catholic missionaries, reported the missionaries – who belonged to the group founded by soon-to-be-sainted Mother Teresa – were nuns.
While there is an ongoing conflict in Yemen between embattled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels, direct on-ground attacks on civilians is very rare.
Four suspected al-Qaida militants were killed on Friday in a US drone strike on their vehicle in Yemen’s south-eastern Shabwah province, witnesses said. Besides the nuns, six Ethiopians, a Yemeni cook and Yemeni guards were among those killed, a local official said.
Screams of elderly residents echoed from the home during the shooting rampage, witnesses told the AFP news agency, adding they saw bodies of dead workers with their arms tied behind their backs scattered on the floor.
Information received tonight by India through informal sources in Yemen suggests the nuns were working as nurses and were among 16 people killed in the attack, two Indian officials involved in relations with the country told The Telegraph.
Chandy added that Sally was lucky to escape the attackers as she, along with a few locals, saved herself by hiding when these gunmen created mayhem.
Baby born to woman “fighting for her life” after being stabbed in Sutton Coldfield town centreYemen is struggling with an ongoing civil war between the northern region, controlled by Shiite rebels, and the southern region controlled by Saudi Arabia-backed government forces.
The Yemen-based branch of Al Qaeda denied any links to Friday’s attack in a statement addressed to the residents of Aden. Both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have set up strongholds in the country amid the power vacuum.
Once a cosmopolitan city home to thriving Hindu and Christian communities, Aden has gone from one of the world’s busiest ports as a key hub of the British empire to a largely lawless backwater.
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The violence has escalated in Yemen, with more than 6,000 people killed since a Saudi-led coalition launched a campaign of airstrikes one year ago.
