A bereaved father has punched a priest who refused to bury his toddler son because the family belonged to a rival Church.

The son of Roman Polishchuk died when he was struck by a man committing suicide by jumping from the eighth floor of a building. His father was with him and witnessed the tragedy and the boy's mother came out of the building seconds after the incident, but paramedics were unable to save him.

The city in the central Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia is dominated by the Orthodox Church loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate. Because the family belong to the rival Kiev Patriarchate, the priest they asked to conduct the funeral, Yevgen Molchanov, refused to do so and a scuffle broke out inside the church.

Polishchuk told local news site Forpost: 'The priest said our baby was unchristened and our church was a sham.

'My wife cried and threw herself before him on her knees, but this did not help.'

Molchanov told Forpost: 'I am very sorry. I feel for those people. But there are certain lines I cannot cross. A child christened by the Kiev Patriarchate remains unchristened – and the Kiev Church itself is a hoax.'

The boy was eventually christened posthumuously to allow the funeral to proceed.

Orthodoxy in Ukraine splintered into factions loyal to Moscow and Kiev when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the two Churches are bitterly hostile to each other.

A spokesman for the Kiev Patriarchate, Yevstratiy Zorya, wrote on Facebook: 'There is no official document from the Moscow Patriarchate saying this must be the case. This is all completely arbitrary and based on some verbal orders that are issued under the guise of secret "canons".'