Head of Medelllin secret police assassinated

Gunmen on motorcycles have killed the new chief of secret police as he drove his car in Medellin, Colombia.

The killing of Fernando Mancilla in Colombia's second largest city was similar in style to the numerous assassinations carried out by Pablo Escobar's Medellin cocaine cartel in the 1980s and 1990s.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Mancilla had recently been appointed head of Colombia's secret police, known as the DAS, for Antioquia province.

Gunmen riding on the backs of two motorcycles fired repeatedly into Mancilla's red Mazda as he drove it through a residential neighbourhood during the morning rush hour.

Mancilla was a lawyer by profession and in the late 1980s and early 1990s served as a prosecutor for Antioquia province.

He had planned to travel to Bogota to be formally named to his new job.

Army General Mario Montoya, commander of a brigade based in Medellin, said a reward would be offered to anyone who could help identify the killers.

Also on Thursday night, two gunmen on motorcycles killed a former state magistrate and high-level prosecutor in Bogota as he was traveling in his car, police said.

Alejandro Keipo Baron was killed by four shots to his head as his Mercedes weaved through rush-hour traffic in the state capital, an official with the Bogota police said. The gunmen escaped.