UN worker shot dead in Pakistan

The UN refugee agency is helping care for thousands of displaced people

A UN refugee agency official has been shot dead during a failed kidnap attempt in north-west Pakistan.

The man, a Pakistani, died in hospital after the shooting at the Katcha Garhi camp near Peshawar, the UN said.

Police said a security guard was also killed when four armed men tried to abduct the official.

Nearly 200,000 people have been staying in camps near Peshawar since being displaced by recent fighting in Swat valley between troops and the Taliban.

"A national staff of UNHCR at the Katcha Garhi camp has been a victim of a kidnapping attempt that turned into a shooting," UN spokesman Janos Tisovszky told the AFP news agency.

"He was shot in the chest several times and he was rushed to hospital," he added.

The agency quoted another UN spokeswoman, Stephanie Bunker, as saying the official died.

"He was in the camp. There was a shooting and he was shot in the chest. He died after being shot in the chest," she said.

The UN said the dead man was a 59-year-old Pakistani who had worked for the organisation for 30 years.

Police said two Pakistanis working for the UN were also wounded in the attack.

In February, a senior UNHCR official, John Solecki, was kidnapped in the western city of Quetta.

He was released two months later. Militants from the hitherto unknown Balochistan Liberation United Front said they abducted him.

It is not clear who is behind the latest attack near Peshawar.

Kidnappings and attacks on foreigners have increased in Pakistan in the last year with most incidents happening in the north-west, where the Taliban are strongest.