Associated Press photographer shot dead in Afghanistan

Veteran photographer Anja Niedringhaus and acclaimed reporter Kathy Gannon were rushed to hospital after they were shot while sitting in the back of car by an Afghan policeman, a hospital director has said.

• Read: Associated Press photographer shot dead in Afghanistan

Photographer Anja Niedringhaus, 48, was killed and reporter Kathy Gannon, 60, wounded while they were sitting in the back of a car, Associated Press said.

Anja Niedringhaus, an acclaimed German photographer who had covered conflict zones including Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, Gaza and the West Bank, was killed instantly, according to an AP Television freelancer who witnessed the shooting.

Canadian reporter Kathy Gannon, who is based in Islamabad and has covered war and unrest in Afghanistan for 30 years, was shot twice and was receiving medical help, the AP said. Kathy Gannon underwent surgery in the eastern city of Khost. .

The operation was described as successful and Gannon's condition was stable, AP said

The Associated Press news agency has said in a dispatch that its photographer Anja Niedringhaus had been killed in eastern Afghanistan. Reporter Kathy Gannon was also wounded in the attack.

Anja Niedringhaus, 48, an internationally acclaimed German photographer, was killed instantly, according to an AP Television freelancer who witnessed the shooting.

According to AP, the two were traveling in a convoy of election workers delivering ballots from the center of Khost city, when a unit commander named Naqibullah walked up to the car and opened fire on them in the back seat with his AK-47.

The attack comes on the eve of the April 5 presidential elections Islamist insurgency groups claim is a "Western-backed sham".

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