A man dressed as a policeman has shot two foreign journalists in eastern Afghanistan, killing one and wounding the other.
The two journalists were reporting for the Associated Press from an isolated town along the country's mountainous border with Pakistan when the attack took place, according to a local official.
Anja Niedringhaus (48) a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer from Germany was killed instantly according to a witness. Reporter Kathy Gannon was shot twice and is being treated in hospital where she is understood to be in a stable condition.
The shooting took place on the eve of Afghanistan's Presidential election, which Taliban insurgents have vowed to disrupt with bombings and assassinations. A spokesman for the governor of Khost province has suggested the gunman could have been a genuine policeman.
"Naqibullah, a policeman in Tani district of Khost, opened fire on two foreign journalists. One was killed and one was wounded" Mobariz Zadran said.
Afghan voters have vowed to defy the threat of military attacks and have attended rallies in their thousands, ignoring bomb warnings and attacks across much of the country. The new President will succeed Hamid Karzai, who has been in power since 2001 when the Taliban fell.
Reporter Kathy Gannon is recovering after being shot twice
Ms. Niedringhaus began her career at a local newspaper in Germany at the age of 16 then joined the AFP in 1990. She covered the war in the former Yugoslavia for more than a decade and continued to report on conflict around the world from 2002 and regularly reported on the Olympic Games.
In 2005 she was part of a team of 11 photographers who won the Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news category for her coverage of the war in Iraq. She was experienced working in Afghanistan where she had spent months covering the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Her work appeared in newspapers around the world and was exhibited in galleries and museums in Frankfurt, Berlin, London and Canada.
"Anja and Kathy together have spent years in Afghanistan covering the conflict and the people there" said AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll.
"Anja was a vibrant, dynamic journalist well-loved for her insightful photographs, her warm heart and joy for life. We are heartbroken at her loss".
Last month, a well-known Afghan journalist with the Agence France-Presse news agency was killed when Taliban gunmen opened fire in a luxury hotel in the centre of Kabul.
British-Swedish journalist Nils Horner was shot dead on a Kabul street on March 11th 2014. An unverified claim later appeared on the website of the Fidai Mahaz group claiming responsibility.
