United Nations police in Kosovo are investigating an explosion that killed a police officer driving to work in the west of the province on Thursday.
A UN spokeswoman confirmed a Nigerian officer had died and police were checking if a device caused the blast.
She said details were still unclear but the officer's car appeared to have been caught in a blast at a shopping centre in Prizren 80km south-west of Pristina.
Nigeria has about 50 officers among the UN force of more than 3,000 in Kosovo.
Some reports say the blast was the result of a device placed under the vehicle. But a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (Unmik), Marcia, Poole told the BBC News website details were sketchy and it was still not certain whether the UN officer was the target of the blast.
She said the situation in the province had been calm in recent months.
'Despicable'
The province has been a UN protectorate since 1999, when a Nato bombing campaign forced Serb forces to halt operations against the separatist ethnic-Albanian majority there.
The head of Unmik, Soeren Jessen-Petersen, strongly condemned the killing, calling it "a despicable act that would certainly be repudiated by the people of Kosovo".
" Those responsible for this cowardly act should know that such attacks will not distract the police from their duties "
"Those who espouse the path of violence must be isolated and weeded out from society," he said.
"The progressive sections of Kosovo society and its political leadership have been working in close co-operation with the international community to take Kosovo forward on the path of good order and prosperity."
Mr Jessen-Petersen met officers of the Nigerian Police Contingent and extended his condolences to the family of the deceased officer.
Unmik Police Commissioner Kai Vittrup, who visited the scene of the explosion, added his condemnation of the bombing.
"International and Kosovo Police Officers have together been engaged in establishing the rule of law in Kosovo," he said.
"We will spare no efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice."
Police investigators, forensics and explosives experts, are investigating the incident.
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