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| Algeria's police chief shot dead | Algeria's police chief shot dead |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| The chief of Algeria's national police force, Ali Tounsi, has been shot dead in the capital, Algiers, officials say. | The chief of Algeria's national police force, Ali Tounsi, has been shot dead in the capital, Algiers, officials say. |
| He was killed by a colleague during a regular morning meeting in the police headquarters in front of several witnesses, the interior ministry said. | He was killed by a colleague during a regular morning meeting in the police headquarters in front of several witnesses, the interior ministry said. |
| The alleged killer was seized with what the ministry called an attack of madness and shot Col Tounsi before turning the gun on himself. | The alleged killer was seized with what the ministry called an attack of madness and shot Col Tounsi before turning the gun on himself. |
| He was now in hospital with severe injuries, the ministry said. | He was now in hospital with severe injuries, the ministry said. |
| A judicial inquiry into the circumstances of the shooting has been opened. There has been no indication of a link to Islamist militants, who have periodically attacked government targets. | |
| Col Tounsi was one of Algeria's most powerful security officials and was closely involved in the country's fight against militants, analysts say. | |
| He had devoted himself to serving the nation, a statement from the interior ministry said, and to the modernisation of the national police force which he had been head of for more than 10 years. | |
| Algeria was riven with violence after the 1992 general election, won by an Islamist party, was annulled. | |
| More than 150,000 people died, but an amnesty in 1999 led many rebels to lay down their arms. | |
| Political violence in Algeria has declined since then, but a group calling itself Al-Qaeda in the Land of Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM) has continued to carry out attacks. |