LOC18:53
15:53 GMT
(With photos)
ALGIERS, Feb 25 (KUNA) -- The fellow police officer who has shot dead
Algerian police chief Ali Tounsi had apparently a fit of madness, the Interior
Ministry said in a release.
The shooting took place during a regular morning meeting in the police
headquarters in front of a number of witnesses, it added.
"Ali Tounsi, 76, died at 10:45 a.m. during a working session during which a
police official, apparently having a fit of madness, used his weapon and
killed Colonel Ali Tounsi, then injured himself very seriously," the ministry
said.
The killer was a fellow police officer who had an argument with the police
chief, it said, adding that the murderer was taken to hospital after trying to
kill himself following the shooting.
The Interior Ministry added that a judicial investigation was opened to
"determine the circumstances of this painful event."
However, the ministry failed to reveal why the fellow officer killed the
chief of the Algerian National Police, but the incidence is reported to have
taken place as he axed the murderer over an alleged communication deal.
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