US anti-drugs plane shot down, pilot killed

A United States drug fumigation plane was shot down by rebels in north-eastern Colombia today and its Colombian pilot was killed, police said.

The single-engine T-65 Turbo Thrush plane came under heavy gunfire near the town of El Tarra, 290 miles north-east of Bogota, while it was fumigating coca, the main ingredient in cocaine, said Colonel Henry Gamboa, head of the eradication unit of the Colombian Counter-narcotics Police.