Regional prefect killed in Corsica

A senior French government official was assassinated on the violence- torn island of Corsica yesterday evening, police said.

Police immediately set up a cordon sealing off the neighbourhood in the coastal city of Ajaccio where Claude Erignac, regional prefect of Corsica, was shot after attending a classical music concert, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the slaying. He was shot in the head several times outside the Le Kallyste theatre by an unknown number of men. The high-calibre bullets nearly ripped Erignac's head off, police said. His body was taken to the Notre Dame de la Misericorde hospital.

At the time of the shooting, the victim was with his wife and the street was full of people. Police were questioning witnesses at the scene. Mr Erignac, appointed prefect two years ago, was the representative of the state in the region, essentially a governor appointed by Paris. He often went out without his bodyguard.

Moments after the killing, labour minister Martine Aubry interrupted a late-night debate in the National Assembly in Paris to announce the death and called for a minute of silence.

Corsica has been the site of bloody separatist violence for the past 23 years. Corsican militants want greater autonomy and aid from the central government in Paris.

The Corsican National Liberation Front-Historic Wing (FLNC), the most radical militant faction, on announced on 26 January the end to a 7-month- old truce, saying France's Socialist-led government, which took power last June, had failed to meet their demands. In recent years, their attacks have usually consisted of midnight bombings of deserted government offices, state-owned businesses and tourist homes. There are usually no injuries.

- Ajaccio, AP