An unidentified militiaman shot and killed a British journalist while she was on assignment in the Somali capital, witnesses have said.
The British Broadcasting Corp confirmed that Africa producer Kate Peyton, 39, was shot and died later Wednesday, after undergoing surgery at a Mogadishu hospital.
The BBC said "it was later reported that she died from internal bleeding". She had been accompanied by another BBC journalist, who was uninjured.
The shooting occurred outside the Sahafi Hotel in Mogadishu, witnesses said. The reason was not immediately clear.
There are many militiamen around the Sahafi Hotel because it is where Somali lawmakers are staying as they assess conditions for relocating the government from neighbouring Kenya, where it is currently based.
The assailant was chased by other militiamen who were guarding Peyton, but got away in a car, witnesses said.
Peyton had arrived in Mogadishu on Wednesday morning on assignment from South Africa, where she is based.
The BBC said she had arrived with BBC reporter Peter Greste to make a series of reports about the country.
"Peter Greste was unharmed," it said.
In a BBC statement released in London, Director of News Helen Boaden said, "Kate was one of our most experienced and respected foreign affairs producers who had worked all over Africa and all over the world. She will be greatly missed, both professionally and personally."
Director-General Mark Thompson added, "Kate had worked for the BBC since 1993 and was dedicated to covering news across the African continent. All our thoughts are with her family and friends at this time."
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said that Peyton's death, "is extremely shocking and extremely tragic", his spokesman Yusuf Ismail said, speaking from Nairobi, Kenya. "It is a cowardly act and if the message was to scare the new Somali institutions or the international community, definitely the killers made a very significant mistake," Ismail quoted Yusuf as saying.
Somalia has had no effective central government since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Then they turned on each other, sinking this nation of seven million into anarchy.
Mogadishu is in southern Somalia where aid agencies have posted few international staff because of security concerns.